


Together

by cystemic



Series: Soren [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: :), Adventure, Chiss, Chiss Ascendancy, Conspiracy, F/M, Gen, Multi, Mystery, SWTOR, The old Republic - Freeform, except there's romance this time, my usual schtick, space, the slowest of burns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-18 06:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 51,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14207130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cystemic/pseuds/cystemic
Summary: Naporar. An icy planet of blue-skinned warriors with glowing red eyes known as Chiss. At the far end of the Naporis Plateau lies an abandoned prison. Or so it seems. For inside you'll find the Shadow Base - a covert training facility managed by the Chiss Secret police.Two young cadets in their fifth year of the program have found themselves at an impasse. For without each other, they cannot proceed. But maybe together, they can become what the Ascendancy needs them to be - Abacupfi.





	1. Past Due

"He doesn't want me," Raya strained over Huonn's rhetoric. "He doesn't want anything to do with me. Won't let me touch him, let alone-"

"It doesn't matter what he wants or doesn't want. Your assignment is clear. You get close, you copulate and he talks. That's how it will be in field and that's exactly how it is now," Huonn said coldly. "Do you think a Human will be openly enticed to share military secrets with an alien and a potential spy?"

"No, Overseer." Raya frowned.

“Do you think you'll be sexually attracted to every target you are assigned?”

“No, Overseer.”

"Then you understand the purpose of this exercise."

Huonn gave her a stern look. Her facial features were angular and reminiscent of a bird of prey but Raya's fierce gaze wouldn't abate. She stared angrily at the middle-aged Chiss woman behind the steely grey desk, trying to channel the rage into a productive argument.

The young cadet had once liked her Overseer, even seen eye to eye. Both, were equally ruthless but where Raya worked primarily on instinct, Huonn was a woman of precision. Tactful, cold, calculating and highly suited to her post. As only someone with such a casual detachment to any sentiments or emotions could mould the cadets into what they needed to be. Cold blooded killers.

"I know you've already fucked most of the men in your group," Huonn observed sourly. 

"It's made it most difficult to convince them to copulate with anyone else despite the… _side effects."_ She gave Raya an icy glare.

"With respect, Overseer, you told me to hone my abilities and make the most of the enhancements," Raya tried to be diplomatic. She needed to play to Huonn's fiddle if she wanted to get out of this. "I was simply-"

"Horny, Raya. You were horny. And you chose the best looking cadets to sleep with. Now I am telling you once again, to go and do the one you've been assigned for once."

"What am I supposed to do? Force myself onto him? Break him in half?" Raya felt the bile rising up her throat. "I've tried every tactic I know, Overseer. He's a pathetic little k'rahtu that's never touched a woman before and probably never will!"

"He will and it will be you. We haven't spent two hundred thousand chousen perfecting your body to have one of Rhonko's little boffins turn you down flat."

Raya pouted her incredibly expensive and voluptuous lips. 

Huonn had poked a sore spot she had been side-stepping for three weeks now. Her flawless self-confidence had dampened somewhat and her self-esteem was crumbling, enough to ask for this meeting. Enough to ask for reprieve but that wasn't something the Shadow Operative Training Program could offer.

"How is he still alive anyway?!" Raya spat, anger swelling in her chest. "He's the weakest Chiss I've ever seen. I found him in the infirmary on six separate occasions."

"I'm trialling a new healing serum on Cadet 107. He provides ample opportunities for testing as you've observed," Huonn remarked.

"Because he gets beaten to a pulp every time he has to fight one of us. He shouldn't even be here."

"I agree but Overseer Kendir’honko’irnodith has chosen this one personally. It's out of my hands whether he stays or goes so I'm making the most of what I have." She shrugged.

"Don't think I don't see what you're doing, Raya." She narrowed her carmine eyes. "I have no illusions that he's the least favourable partner you've ever had but I did not train you to quit or give up or surrender."

"I would never-"

"You already have," Huonn said coldly.

The words hung in the air and Raya knew she was right. It had been niggling at the back of her mind - the imminent consequences of failure. But the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to succeed. She hated that stupid boy and she was so relieved when he turned her down. It should have taken away the burden of blame on her part but instead it just compounded her guilt.

"I must stress upon you, cadet. If you fail to complete this assignment, you will be just as unqualified to continue as he is. Your success or failure will be mutually assured," Huonn explained.

"That's not fair!" Raya burst out but then she remembered who she was speaking to. "Sir..."

"Life isn't fair, cadet. Your own existence is proof of that and I want you to learn this lesson now, rather than later." Huonn rose from her seat.

"Come." She led the way out of her office and Raya obediently followed, eager to end the conversation which she had so haphazardly blundered through.

They walked through the many interconnecting hallways of the Shadow Operative Base, black pfalmir walls glistening in the bright white light which beamed down from the ceiling.

Raya fell in behind Huonn, the familiar Naporari military walk synchronizing their steps. 

They passed classrooms and briefing rooms and training rooms and every other type of facility in the complex, beelining for the turbolift at the far end of the corridor.

The Overseer entered first and placed her hand on the scanner, retrieving a holobadge from her jacket with the other. The equipment picked up both sets of identification as Raya walked into the turbolift and Huonn traced the Cheunh characters for "Internment 3" on the touchpad.

The doors slid shut and Raya felt very uneasy as they began to descend. The level indicator strayed far further down than she had ever gone in the same lift. The Base was above ground but where they were going had to be seven floors below. The area should be abandoned, off-limits to cadets. 

Why was Huonn taking her down there?

The movement stopped and the lift compartment fluidly clicked into place, signalling their arrival. Huonn marched out as soon as the doors opened and Raya quickly followed the Overseer as she made her way through the steely grey corridor. There were far more guards than she was used to and when they turned a corner, Raya understood why. 

Each wall was lined with cell blocks and thick pfalmir bulkheads closed off the entrance to each prisoner's quarters. They passed an open door revealing a Chiss on his knees as the guards injected him with some unknown substance. Two charric guns followed his every move as he spat and swore under his breath.

They walked past with Huonn's brisk step and Raya felt the uneasiness growing.

"Why are we here?" she asked suddenly, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.

"You'll see," came the stern reply.

They continued down Huonn's path and made several turns and crossings which Raya habitually memorized as an escape route. She'd been trained to exfiltrate worse prisons than this but it was good to have a strategy if she ever needed it.

"You don't understand. I can't do it," a familiar voice was pleading down the hall.

"Honestly, Cadet. Are you going to wait until you're married to have sex with an informant or perhaps the third month of living together?" an older man chuckled. "Get your head on straight, it's just another assignment."

"Why does it have to be her?!" the boy pleaded desperately. "Anyone else, I beg you."

"We've discussed this already. The Overseers have agreed and finalised all the pairings. It's too late to change anything, especially on a whim."

"It's not a whim, it's-"

"Childish and stubborn," Rhonko said loudly as Raya and Huonn turned the corner. He was an average Chiss by all physical standards. Not young, nor old, not handsome nor bold and beside him was a slip of a boy whose head barely reached Raya’s shoulder when they stood side by side.

"There's no way you can continue training if you can't even- Oh, Overseer Ulah’uon’nula. Right on time."

"Rhonko..." she replied coldly.

"Ma'r, well... Let's begin. Just through here." He gestured to the two young Chiss.

Raya glared at Soren who shrank away under her scarlet death stare and slipped into the cell his Overseer had pointed to. She followed, feeling Huonn's subtle eyes drilling into the back of her head.

"Ma'resh, let's have a strategic assessment of the layout." Rhonko leaned against the doorframe as they entered the cell.

"Durable pfalmean walls." Soren rapped the steely surface with his knuckles. "Dual-reinforced and insulated. Impossible to penetrate without heavy explosives or aerial bombardment. Perhaps a charric drill..."

"No windows," Raya observed. "Ventilation and plumbing too small for infiltration or escape. Only one exit." She pointed to the door.

"Solid build. Only the bare essentials provided to inmates. Perfect holding cell." Soren nodded.

"Good old fashioned Chiss architecture and engineering." Rhonko gave them a tiny knowing smile as he stepped back.

Huonn wasn't nearly so kind. She slammed the bulkhead closed and the lock clicked into place, trapping them both inside.

"Chen!" Raya cried out, rushing to the door.

A flap opened in the bottom, just large enough to fit a tray of food and their voices floated through.

"Now you know escape is practically impossible so you'll have ample time to complete your assignment and we can all finally move onto the next stage of your training," Rhonko told them.

"We'll be watching," Huonn said coldly and the flap slapped shut, leaving the two of them alone in the cell.

"Nai!" Raya shouted through the pfalmean but no reply came. 

The Overseers were gone.

She kicked at the door but her strength wasn't even close to comparable. All she did was compound her rage and irritation with pain as she struggled against the trap she had so easily fallen for. This wasn't the first time the Overseers had dropped them into a pit of vipers and told them to slither out but Raya had never thought badly of their training techniques until now.

She turned around to see a terrified young boy staring back at her. Midnight blue hair fell into his frightened red eyes as he shrank back against the wall opposite.

"Th-they left us..." he mumbled, sliding down the pfalmean wall to hug his knees.

"Ktah!" Raya spat.

This was a nightmare.


	2. Trapped

_Day One._

Not a word.

_Day Two._

A small glimpse of eye contact as another food tray was shoved unceremoniously under the door.

_Day Three._

Silence.

_Day Four._

Raya began drifting off in the corner but she quickly roused lest her cellmate decide to molest her while she slept.

_Day Five._

Raya glanced curiously towards her cellmate while he relieved himself in the refresher but she said nothing, shoving her face back into the wall as soon as he turned around.

_Day Six._

Power failure. 

Deliberate or accidental? They could not say but it left their cell in darkness. The only remaining sources of light were the bioluminescent strips of paint skirting the walls and the soft red glow of their eyes.

That night came the first sound either of them made. It was Soren's stomach. He was starving. Despite his training, his metabolism was boosted exponentially by Huonn's serum and his body had begun eating itself.

He glanced over in Raya's direction. She was still ignoring him so he timidly reached out and grabbed a slice of breaded meat from one of the fresher trays and began nibbling on it. Unable to control himself, he devoured the whole thing and set about eating the rest of the food.

Raya's attention quickly focused on his binging and she scolded him for eating what was obviously poisoned bait. But after a heatedly one-sided discussion, her stomach betrayed her better judgement and she joined in, stuffing her face with food. Once finished, each of them returned to their respective corners to digest, glad that the hunger strike was over.

_Day Seven._

No food came through the opening. They were now officially being starved. There was still no power. Nothing to do, nothing to see or hear but each other. They remained silent despite it all but the fury had faded in both of them somewhat. The routine cocktail of stims and adrenals they received on a daily basis had been cut cold turkey and left them tired and nauseous, without energy to speak.

"I hate you," Raya whispered all of a sudden.

Soren raised a frosty eyebrow. 

"I'm not the one who put you here," he said without looking at her.

"I know."

_Day Eight._

Still no power.

The darkness did little to brighten the mood. If it was deliberate and the Overseers were trying to get them to huddle up together in the cold, they wanted no part of it.

"I hate this place," Raya thought out loud.

Soren found sarcasm somewhere in his dwindling supply and said, "At least it's not Hutta," remembering the swampy planet where his last mission had taken him.

He could have sworn the corner of Raya's mouth turned up as she hid her face in the wall. 

"I'd rather be free on Hutta than trapped in here," she said sourly.

Soren rolled his eyes. He hated melodrama.

"We're not trapped," he said. "We can leave any time we want."

"I'm not going to fuck you," Raya hissed at him.

"That's not what you said last time."

"Huonn ordered me to do it," Raya spat. "You think any woman in her right mind would want to sleep with you?"

"I knew it was Huonn from the beginning," Soren smirked. "She and Rhonko have been scheming behind my back long enough. Now, they've just pulled you into the mix."

"I don't care," Raya said sourly. "I want out of here but I'm not gonna fuck you to do it."

"We're supposed to be shadow operatives. We shouldn't have to fuck anybody to get out of a prison cell."

Raya pushed off the wall and her eyes lit up, widening as she comprehended what he was saying.

"You mean we can escape?" she whispered to him across the room.

"We?" Soren hissed back.

"You're one of Rhonko's bigheads, aren't you? You can pick the lock, slice the computers outside. You get the door open and I can get us past the guards."

"And then what? Fight our way out of Shadow Base? Or are you planning on blaming me as soon as we get topside so the Overseers can kick me out?"

"It's not like that."

"Sure, it isn't," he grumbled, stuffing his face back into the corner.

Raya frowned, thinking about how to manipulate him and came up with a different strategy.

"Listen, I'm sorry-"

"No, you're not. You just want to escape." He saw through her ploy immediately.

"Ma'resh. I want to leave his horrible place and never come back. Is that what you want to hear?!"

"I don't want to hear anything from you.”

"Ergh!" she cried and angrily pelted him with a stale knot of bread.

"Tssss," he hissed but didn't turn around. That was exactly what she wanted. A response. A rise. An in. But it wasn't going to happen. He knew where this was going and he didn't want a truce. He wanted to be angry and silent. So he was.

No more was said.

_Day Nine._

No power, no heat, no light.

Soren could almost hear the howling wind through the pfalmean walls as it carried flakes of snow through the cold, cold air outside. Any other Chiss would have frozen to death by now and it occurred to him that this entire state of affairs could just be another test the Overseers decided to conduct on the unsuspecting cadets. 

What better way to measure their endurance than by convincing them it was their own idea to refuse warmth and sustenance on principle?

He was so tired. 

Raya had fallen asleep in the corner across from him and despite his better judgement, Soren soon found himself nodding off as well.

Raya awoke first, a little groggy but then she bolted upright, stimulated by the shock of having fallen asleep with Soren still in the room. 

Had he touched her? Violated her?

No. He hadn't moved.

His lanky form was still huddled up in the opposite corner, drooping slightly. He’d fallen asleep, just as she had.

Raya got up and checked the door. The lock had dual shaft magnetic couplings. Nothing short of an EMP or a stick of detonite could unlock it, even without power but she pulled at it anyway, using all her prodigious strength to try and rip the door open but it wouldn't budge.

Annoyed and exasperated, Raya collapsed to the floor and hugged her knees, knitting her brow as she considered her current predicament and her options. 

Would it be so bad to just walk over and... take him?

The boy was asleep, she just had to flip him over and... 

Raya swallowed, shuddering at the thought of having to let him inside her.

Maybe she could just kill him instead? She had done so before, it wouldn't be hard to do it again. But what would the Overseers think?

She knew they were watching, like they always did. Raya had been suspended from all physical training for three weeks last time. Would they completely take away her training privileges if she did this? Would they suspend her from the Program entirely?

Or was this what they wanted her to do? Was this why they put them in a room together? To see which one would die first?

No. The boy in front of her would never have the yuvsen to raise a hand against Raya. He would just sulk away in the corner for the rest of his life if he could help it and that meant she would be stuck in here with him.

 _Pathetic,_ she thought to herself.

A planet full of steel-faced warriors and here she was, sitting across the room from this piss-poor excuse for a Chiss who couldn't even put out without throwing a tantrum. 

She doubted he had ever been with a woman before. All of her rivals were fierce warriors and cunning agents, and the men weren't half bad either. All of them had been paired up weeks ago, all of them satisfied and allowed to resume training. 

Why was Raya the one who got stuck with the child? Why couldn't they give her a man?

She buried her head in her knees and closed her eyes, trying to decide whether murder was the correct solution to this puzzle. But her mind ran away from the icy cell entirely.

She yearned to be rid the Program, she dreamed of her home in Napor City and her father's face appeared as it always did. His voice, so strict and severe, always scolding her for having even the slightest bit of fun. She remembered his tyranny and rigid sensibilities. An invisible cage that Raya escaped by joining the Program. After her mother died.

The beautiful Csillan figure-skater was more graceful and elegant than any Aristocra her daughter had ever seen. How she would glide over the ice. And spin and jump and fly. Raya still missed her more than she could say or feel. It hurt somewhere deep inside. Like a black hole that sucked in all the happiness she had ever felt and left her empty and sad.

She had wanted nothing more than to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a figure skater herself one day but her father crushed those dreams shortly after her passing. She'd never get to see her little brother again…

Soren awoke to the sound of quiet sobbing drifting over from the far corner. 

It was that girl again. Crying?

 _How inappropriate,_ he thought to himself, curling up to collect what little heat radiated from his body.

Was it another one of her ploys to get him to sleep with her? Or help her escape?

Well, it wouldn't work, he decided adamantly. He didn't care how convincing the waterworks display was. She would have to stop eventually. Right?

The sobbing continued and though it wasn't loud or gushing, Soren heard every breath hiss through the air as though it were his own. It was despair, he recognized. Loss. He could hear her heart quivering with pent up emotion and it made him anxious. 

Everything she did made him anxious.

Soren shifted from his awkward position against the wall and turned to find the young woman buried in her knees, the sound of muffled sniffling escaping her ball of misery.

He decided to say nothing. Not that he had anything constructive to say. Polite ignorance seemed to be the best course of action in this situation.

But the sobs didn't end. They continued. And Soren’s sensitive ears could only take so much.

"Are you alright?" he asked finally. Perhaps if she realized he was awake, the crying would cease. 

She didn't answer. She didn’t care. It wasn’t his voice she needed to hear. She kept crying and it just made him feel awkward. He hated awkward. 

He purposefully avoided people and places and things just so he wouldn't have to feel these weird emotions that other people were rubbing off on him by proximity. He never knew what to say in these situations or how to handle himself. He couldn't console or convince or calm people down. 

So he just sat there, taking it. 

He was never going to be a great Shadow Operative, he knew that. The other cadets were always so calm and collected and confident and capable. Unparalleled warriors and leaders and innovative thinkers. And then there was Soren. An anxious mess of a Chiss that jumped at the sight of his own shadow. He hadn't grown much in the five years since they started training and he certainly hadn't matured when it came to emotional matters such as these.

He let his forehead drop into his hand, fingers parting the wayward strands of hair that had grown back over his skull after the _incident._ They stuck out awkwardly in different directions but at least he couldn't feel the squishy mess of brain tissue beneath his fingers.

He sighed deeply. His father had been right. It was a mistake to join the Program. He should have known better than to try to become something he wasn't.

Soren was intelligent to a degree but that wasn't enough to succeed here. He wasn't strong enough or fast enough to compete with anyone. And he definitely wasn't committed enough to sleep with whoever they told him to, especially Raya. She still gave him panic attacks.

He over looked at her sobbing by the door.

 _What does she have to cry about?_ he thought irritably.

She wasn't the one who got beaten senseless during combat training. She wasn't the one who finished last on every obstacle course. She wasn't the one who got throttled for test answers whenever a particularly difficult exam was coming up. It should be him sobbing quietly in the corner.

"Tchh..." he tisked, straightening his legs out.

It suddenly felt a lot colder without their heat against his chest and he wondered how much longer he could remain conscious. It was so cold and he was so hungry. The next time he fell asleep could be his last. A final journey into the void.

"I want to go home," he whispered to himself, not expecting an answer.

"...we can't go home," Raya sniffed from the other side of the room. "We're supposed to be dead."

It was true, of course. Officially, they were dead to the world but Soren was also bitter.

"It's not the only thing we're supposed to be," he muttered sourly.

Raya seethed in reply, her scarlet eyes burning away the milky blue tears that had left trails on her perfect pale face.

"Go fuck yourself," she said but it had none of the viciousness she had exhibited earlier.

She was just as tired and hungry and cold as Soren. The meagre source of water in the tap was their only sustenance and it had slowly begun to freeze over. It was difficult to think, let alone speak and all their griping had lost its meaning.

"I don't want to die here..." he mumbled, trying to wiggle his frozen toes.

"They won't let us die," Raya grumbled. "We're too valuable."

"Maybe you are..." he said. "They'll be glad to get rid of me."

"After everything they've done to keep you alive?"

"They were testing their precious serum," Soren breathed. "They know it works now. As far as the Overseers are concerned, I've served my purpose."

"Then why am I here?" Raya asked. "Am I supposed to fuck you? Kill you?" She glared at him, trying to figure it out.

"I hope not..." he trailed off, his eyelids half-closed. 

He could feel it in the silence. The cold coming to claim him. Its icy touch numbing everything down to his bones.

This is what death felt like.

Nothing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Why don't you want me?" Raya interrupted. 

It seemed obvious why she didn't want to sleep with a boy who looked to be half her age but why was he so against sleeping with her?

Overseer Huonn had spared no expense in moulding Raya's body to be the physical embodiment of Human perfection. The hormones, the surgeries, the gene therapy, everything that was necessary to make her irresistible to her future victims. It even worked on Chiss. 

There wasn't a single male cadet that had refused Raya and some of the females were eyeing her hungrily. With her enhancements, she could have anyone she wanted. But this little bre'es didn't seem to be the slightest bit interested. Did he prefer men? Was that it?

"You really have to ask?" he said, tapping his left temple.

Raya knitted her brow thoughtfully. 

"Are you talking about-?"

"I can't get you out of my head." he said grimly.

She didn't think he'd remember anything. It was impossible. It was an accident. She hadn't wanted to kill him, had she?

"You're afraid of me?" she said, recognising the pain in his eyes. There were no visible scars on his body but the scars on his mind?

His eyes widened a fraction before closing again.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll never touch you again." He flipped over to face the wall. "I can't..."

_Day Ten._

Soren awoke to a loud thump and bolted upright to find Raya attempting to kick down the pfalesfir door.

"What are you doing?" he said, unravelling his little ball of warmth.

"What does it look like?!" Raya hissed.

She was panting, her breathing heavy. How long had she been at it?

"They'll see you trying to break out,” he warned.

"So?" she spat.

"What are they going to do?" She raised her hands. "Lock me up?" she challenged the hidden cameras around the room.

"Nothing could be worse than this," she growled and jump-kicked the door again but it wasn't enough to break it. 

Raya frowned and slid down the wall, onto her knees and gave the door a sharp rap with the palm of her hand, crying silent tears in frustration.

They'd broken her.

The fiery spirit that refused to submit had burned itself to a crisp with this final attempt to secure freedom - a failure. There was no way out, she realized now and she just had to accept it.

Soren looked over at her pitifully, pressing her forehead against the wall but then it occurred to him.

Something was wrong.

They'd been there too long.

The Overseers had told them to copulate but he couldn't hear the gentle buzz of the hidden cameras at work. The cold was not conducive to increasing sexual pleasure either. There was no reason to deny them water or even food.

The cells of a Chiss prison were self-sustaining and could be switched off individually and remotely. And since there was currently no light or heat, it stood to reason that their cell had been affected. 

But was it on purpose? Were they being left to freeze for their impertinence? Some of the other cadets had been killed for less. And freezing them was certainly easier and less messy than trying to subdue a cadet as vicious as Raya. All they had to do was lock them in a cell and wait. After a few weeks, the bodies could be easily collected and sent off to the morgue.

But he wouldn’t be one of them. 

Soren groaned as he moved his stiff frozen legs, struggling to get up on all fours. He wiped the frost from his nose and used the wall to prop himself up as he stood.

Raya’s head quickly turned as she heard the crackling of oxygen escaping his joints.

"Something's wrong," he said, breathing heavily.

"What do you mean?"

"No one's come by since the last food tray," he pointed out.

Mild surprise coloured Raya’s face and she cursed under her breath for being so stupid. She hadn't noticed anything but the cold.

"You've been hammering at that door for how long?" he said hoarsely. "Someone should have come to check it out... They should have fixed the power by now... Or evacuated us..."

Soren made to take a step towards the door but it was more like a tiny shuffle. Raya got up to help him but he cowered away from her touch and hugged the wall, moving as fast as his frozen legs would carry him.

She stepped back and watched him go, wondering how he could even speak to her before.

He reached the door, kicking open the flap at the bottom to confirm that there was no light or heat on the other side. The entire cell block was frozen and Chiss prisons did not have self-releasing locks. In the event of an emergency, prisoners were left behind, the staff evacuated, the cells were collected later individually. 

Soren tapped the lock with a fingernail, listening for the vibrations that would identify its structure and density. He closed his eyes, mentally picturing the twin shafts that burrowed into the wall, blocking their escape. And there was something else. His hands were almost frozen but the lock felt warm under his stiff cold fingers.

It would need its own tiny generator to power the mechanism. The insulation was meant to protect it from icing and prevent a breach in the event of power failure. He didn't need an EMP to blow it open. All he needed to do was open the casing surrounding the micro-generator and wait for it to freeze.

"I need a wedge,” he said, turning to look around. “Or s-something with a thin edge to jam in between the-" Soren didn't even finish his sentence when a loud snap filled his ears. 

He flinched but then Raya handed him half a food tray. 

He opened his eyes a fraction and lowered the arms he'd thrown up to protect his face. She was offering him the item, a fiery spark reignited in her scarlet eyes at the prospect of escape. 

He took it from her hesitantly, careful to avoid touching her hand. The tray was made of a sturdy birupfan alloy but the cut was thin and he quickly slotted it into the groove between the lock and its outer casing. Now he just needed something to wedge it deeper into crease.

"I need a... mallet..." he said, looking around. "Or… something flat."

Raya didn't blink. She lifted up one of her powerful legs and brought it down hard over the lonely bed which had separated them all this time. The tough metal shattered beneath the force of the blow and snapped into pieces. She quickly fished out one of the bed posts and held it up like a bat.

Soren backed away from her, pushing up against the wall lest she decide to beat him with her new weapon but Raya wasn't stupid. She walked over to the tray sticking out of the lock and swung the bedpost down onto it with all her remaining strength.

The casing cracked open revealing the tiny generator inside. The light bathed them both in its warm yellow glow but frost quickly covered the inner workings of the lock and ate away the tiny light. Before they knew it, the warm glow was gone. 

The magnetic lock deactivated and the door creaked open. It was only a fraction wide but it was enough to make Raya smile. She eagerly pushed it open, expecting to find guards but the hallway was empty and cold, just like their cell. A long strip of luminescent paint lined the walls at their ankles, barely enough for them to see.

Soren peeked through the opening, rubbing his arms for warmth. 

"They've abandoned us," he murmured, observing the empty hallway. “They’ve abandoned the prison.”

"No," Raya whispered. "They couldn't have..."


	3. Hunted

Soren took a tentative step out of the cell and looked up and down the hallway. Not a soul, oddly enough but there was something shining down the end of the corridor.

"Over there," he sniffled, using his outstretched finger to wipe his nose.

Raya spotted it too and she knew exactly what it was. Blood.

She ducked back into their cell and dug another bedpost out of the pile, returning to Soren with both weapons in hand, twirling with a flourish. She handed him one of the thick metal poles and walked down the hallway, holding hers up, ready for enemies.

At the end of the corridor was a corpse - one of the guards, his body carved open with wicked claw marks. Raya recognized those too.

"T’repsani," she whispered, examining the body.

"V'rin'tasmi. Maybe we should go back to the cell?" Soren suggested lifting up the metal pole in his hands.

"So we can die of hunger and cold?!" Raya hissed. "I'll take my chances."

"At least you have chances..." Soren mumbled, cowering behind his makeshift weapon as she threw him a dirty look.

T’repsani were the only ectothermic reptiles that lived on Naporar. Cold-blooded and inactive for most of the year, it was rare to glimpse one during winter when they hibernated deep within the planet's crust. But in the spring, when electrostatic shock reignited their hearts, the t'repsani would venture out in search of warmth. They found it in the flesh of their prey and wore the dying corpse on wicked spines until it grew cold.

Raya had only ever seen one in a cage after her father caught it terrorizing a district of Napor City. It was an incredibly cold summer and the creature had grown desperate, approaching the bustling metropolis to find prey.

She still remembered the big, slitted eyes staring back at her through the bars of its cage, blood trickling down its scaly grey face and the body of a little Chiss boy caught on the spines of its back. And then her father pulled the trigger…

Raya suddenly pictured Soren's skin draped over the horrible grey creature. Perhaps it would be better if he remained in the cell.

"Why did it leave him here?" he asked suddenly. "Don't they kill for warmth?"

He was right. T’repsani hunted endotherms one at a time, waiting for the blood to cool on their current corpse-coat before felling another. But this man had been clawed and left to die. Troubling.

Raya knelt down and wrestled the charric pistol out of the guard's frozen grip. He wouldn't be needing it anymore.

"Stay behind me," she said, pointing the pistol ahead.

Soren nodded worriedly, eyeing the body of the fallen guard. His name was Thuno. He had a wife and children, spent his free time collecting geodes. Soren had spoken to him a few times up top. It was much easier talking to people who didn't hate him.

 _One less person now,_ he thought sadly.

Up ahead, Raya had entered full combat mode; pistol up, makeshift bat in the air, knees bent, eyes wide and focused. There were enemies afoot and she would not be taken by surprise.

Soren followed her timidly, maintaining as much distance as he could without leaving them vulnerable. He glanced over his shoulder every few seconds, paranoid about finding a giant grey lizard towering over him. It was so cold that his breath left a warm cloud of vapour drifting through the air and he feared each one could summon the monster to him. He knew he couldn't fight it, even if he wasn't freezing to death. But Raya didn't seem to share his concerns as they made their way through the labyrinthine corridors, following the signs to the emergency exit.

The prison was carved into the side of the freezing bedrock of the Naporis plateau which held all of Napor City and it surrounding municipalities. The high altitude moved the city closer to the sun but it also meant the plateau cast a long shadow over the icy desert below, dropping the temperature well below freezing.

The prison was eventually abandoned; deemed unfit to house even the most dangerous of criminals until the building was repurposed to accommodate the Shadow Operative Training Program. Even so, neither Soren nor Raya had ventured below the barracks up top. The Overseers had told them that it was too dangerous, too cold and too troublesome to reclaim the rest of the derelict prison, pointing out that the six-storey complex was more than enough to cater for their needs. 

And indeed, the shadow operatives had wanted for nothing where their training was concerned. State-of-the-art technology, holoprojectors, supercomputers and a faster than light extranet connection speed. Fifteen separate gymnasiums simulating different weather and battle conditions. Seven fully equipped laboratories for medical, molecular and genetic research and experimentation. Five massive garages with dedicated workshops for modification and maintenance of every standard vehicle in the known galaxy. Four separate hangars filled with starships and simulators. Three different shooting ranges, packed with the largest collection of firearms that either of them had ever seen.

And all of it was housed above the plateau. Which left the fifty or so floors beneath them unaccounted for. The two young Chiss had been locked up in minimum security, only a few levels below the surface but it was surprising to find any of them functional after what they'd been told.

How many more secrets were the Overseers keeping from them?

Soren looked over at Raya, prowling through the dark corridors with her weapons ready, unafraid of the monsters that could be lurking in the darkness around them. And then it dawned on him that they were just as much a danger as the t'repsani that slaughtered the guards at their feet.

Despite Soren's poor performance, he was still being trained as a killer. The Shadow Operative Training Program was an incubator for the Ascendancy's greatest assassins and spies. But perhaps they weren't the only things being incubated out there.

They rounded a corner and the final staircase to the barracks revealed itself, blocked off by a pfalmir trap door. Several Chiss corpses were littered around it, their bodies carved up similarly to Thuno but their faces... so desperate to escape, to get out.

"Ktah!" Raya swore, climbing up the steps and slamming a fist into the pfalmean slab.

"We're trapped," Soren whispered.

"No. There has to be another way out," she hissed, unrelenting.

"It's a prison. It's designed to keep people in, even without power..." he murmured.

“We're not just people!" she growled, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close. Her scarlet eyes glowed bright in the dim light and Soren could feel the panic rising in his throat, the anxiety building as the memory of his death came flooding back to him.

Raya watched the fear drain his face of colour, his usually sapphire skin became pale and slick with frosted sweat. She loosened her grip and he quickly pulled away, leaning against the wall as he struggled to breathe.

"Drop some yuvsen, for pity's sake," she spat at him.

Soren gulped audibly, trying to suck the air in through his teeth as his heart beat against his ribcage. It wasn't something he could control. The panic attacks started as soon as she got close, his body's flight response activating with full force and telling him to run as far and as fast as he could. But his mind knew she wasn't the real danger.

A low rumbling began to echo through the long corridor. Soren's keen ears identified the sound coming from the t’repsani's reverberating throat sac two floors below them. A different kind of panic settled in and his eyes widened, turning to Raya for help.

She'd heard it too, though not as emphatically. The creature was coming for them. In this kingdom of icy steel, they were two shining blue beacons of warmth and Raya had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to snuff them out one at a time.

"We have to get out here," she repeated. "Use that big brain of yours for something. Maybe there's a way to signal the Overseers that we're still down here?"

"No," Soren moaned, clutching at his chest. "These doors only trigger as part of a manual lockdown procedure. They intentionally closed off all the exits. It's part of the containment protocol."

"The t’repsani..." Raya realized. "They know it's down here."

"They know it's loose, they know it's dangerous," he gasped. "They probably knocked out the power hoping it would hibernate."

"But it didn't work..."

"No." Soren reached down to peel a fallen guard's fingers from his blaster. He was never that good with melee weapons anyway. Raya followed suit, quickly prying the guards' equipment off their frozen corpses and donning the protective gear in preparation for what was to come. 

Soren could hear the clicking of claws against pfalesfir steps in the distance.

"It's in the stairwell," he whispered.

Raya's scarlet eyes lit up, searching for another way off the floor. They devoured their surroundings and quickly spotted a ventilation grate not far from where they were standing.

"There," she pointed it out.

Her feet quickly brought her over and kicked it in, throttling the hinges and leaving it askew. She tore the grate off with both hands and slipped inside, performing a controlled slide down the shaft.

Soren clutched at his heart. It was beating impossibly fast in his chest but he knew it was better than it not beating at all. If he stayed where he was, he was as good as dead and he'd rather have another panic attack than join the dead Chiss at his feet.

He knelt down and carefully thread his legs through the opening Raya had made in the wall, pushing against opposite ends of the ventilation shaft to keep himself upright. He could see a small beam of light coming from several levels below. Raya must have breached it. He just needed to slide down and catch the ledge.

Soren adjusted himself, threading one arm at a time through the opening and just as his head left the hallway, he glimpsed a great grey shadow lurking out of the far-away stairwell. The silhouette of several Chiss impaled on the creature’s back sent a chill through his already frozen spine and Soren let go of the ledge he was holding onto, sliding rapidly down the shaft and away from the t'repsani.

But he was going too fast and he lost control of the slide halfway down. One of his legs failed him, too weak from the cold to support his weight. And then he was in freefall, plummeting ever onward into the darkness below but just as he gave up hope, a strong hand reached out and grabbed his own.

Raya pulled him out of the ventilation shaft and into another hallway, standing up as she did so and pulling him up after her. She let go immediately before he started to cringe and walked off down the hall, pistol up and ready.

"I-I saw it..." Soren wheezed, feeling the pangs of panic rattle him again. "It's huge..."

"They're always huge," Raya told him curtly.

"It had three corpses on its back," he whimpered, trying to calm his aching heart. "Barely fit through the door..."

Raya frowned. T’repsani were a six-legged creature with razor sharp claws on each one. They could stand up on their hind legs but on all six, they were never taller than a visia. She shook her head and pressed on, apparently unbothered by this information.

"Where are you going?" Soren wheezed, shuffling after her.

"To find a way out," she said confidently.

"How? Through trial and error?"

"You have a better idea, k'rahtu?" she hissed.

Soren frowned, edging away from her lest she set off another panic attack. There had to be a map of the complex somewhere. A holoterminal, maybe. With a directory.

"We need to find a computer," he said. "A working terminal could show a service entry or... some other way out."

"Mmm, fine," she grumbled, turning her head to peer inside the rooms as they walked.

Raya had unknowingly chosen a floor between the minimum and medium security wards which housed a reinforced inmate transfer pipeline. Inmates would be cordoned off section by section, inspected and allowed to pass only once the bulkhead behind them had been shut. But no longer.

The doors to each section had been thrown open in an attempt to escape and the guards once stationed at each checkpoint were now part of the grim decor, their innards spilled by vicious claws.

Raya continued onward, searching for a terminal that might give them access to the security system and general layout of the prison. Soren trundled along behind her, charric in hand as he checked every corner for hidden t'repsani. The smell of rotting flesh was somewhat dampened by the cold but still wrinkled their noses as they passed.

"Over here." Raya pointed out a desk with a small screen embedded into the steely grey wall. She made room for Soren as he came over to inspect her find. He tapped the keypad, attempting to turn it on and cycle the power but it did no good.

"Power's still out," he said, examining the device a little closer. It wasn't much different from the ones up in the barracks but it was definitely a lot older.

"Can you get it working?" Raya asked behind him.

He didn't turn around, trying to keep himself from even looking at her.

"Ma'r, give me a minute," he said, prying open the service panel and revealing the many intricacies of the terminal's circuitry.

Raya stood guard while he rewired the system to use the power pack in his charric pistol as a surrogate supply. She was never very good at slicing or electronics. Too many small parts that crumbled in her hands when she got excited or frustrated.

The stimulants had made her a lot stronger than a normal Chiss but they also made everything around her a lot more brittle. It took a lot of patience and training not to crush a cup of water every time she drank. A lot of the cutlery in the mess hall had to be replaced for this very reason. But Soren didn't seem to have much of a problem with it. His long fingers expertly manipulated the delicate cables and components into place despite trembling from the cold.

"Alright, let's see if it works..." he said, tapping the power button.

Despite its age, the terminal lit up and sent a spiral of Cheunh characters dancing across the screen, a testament to the durability and versatility of Chiss engineering.

"Mmm, at least something has gone right," he mumbled, sitting down at the desk.

"What does it say?" Raya asked, approaching from behind.

Soren shrank down into the chair, trying to avoid her touch.

She tisked and backed away again.

"It needs a clearance code," he muttered under his breath.

"Can't you just slice it?" Raya grumbled.

"No need," he said, reaching down beside his chair to pick at the corpse of a security guard. He found a blood-spattered holobadge in his coat pocket and flicked it on. The words "...in service of Crastor Aton'estu'shah..." spiralled out of the tiny projector and the terminal immediately registered the wireless signal, granting them access.

"Might keep that..." he said, pocketing the badge.

"Ma'resh, get on with it.”

"Mmm." He brought up the general layout of the prison and began searching for an exit that didn't lead directly into the barracks above the plateau.

"There's nothing but stairs and elevators leading up to the Base," Raya's voice drifted over his shoulder, audibly discouraged by the observation.

"Ma'r, but what's this over here?" He pointed out a large circular opening in the wall on one of the levels beneath them.

"It looks like a hole." Raya spoke, audibly closer this time.

Soren took a deep breath, trying not to imagine her proximity.

"Why would they put a hole in the wall on the architectural plans?" she said thoughtfully.

"Take a look at the level it's on." He zoomed in. A tiny label appeared above the projection, spinning the Cheunh characters for "Waste Management" around in an endless cycle.

"The sewer?"

"Prison waste has to go somewhere. 86% chance it goes all the way to the treatment plant in Perefos."

"That's not far from Napor City." Raya's eyes lit up.

"I'm not connected to the extranet but if we can time it right..."

He trailed off as his ears picked up a familiar rumbling echo down the hallway. He turned to see the hated t’repsani appear at the opposite end and Raya didn't wait to fire six shots from both guns.

They hit home but the creature did little more than take a step back.

"Get up! We have to go!" Raya shouted at him, firing off another round of blue bolts to keep the creature busy. But Soren shrank back against the terminal, furiously typing away at the keypad despite her protestations.

"I said get up, k'rahtu! The t'repsani is coming!" She kicked his seat but Soren wouldn't budge.

Raya growled in frustration, keeping a steady stream of blue bolts flying down the hallway at the scaly grey monster as it moved steadily towards them. Soren was right. It was much bigger than the one she remembered. The shot her father had taken between its eyes did little more than irritate the creature and in the end, it had to be incinerated.

She wished she had a cannon or a bazooka or a flamethrower but the standard issue charric pistols were all the prison guards were allowed to carry, lest they be overpowered and their weapons stolen.

Raya took a step back, fearing the approaching reptile whose hide protected it from the potentially lethal charric blasts. Microwaves and lasers had little effect on its shiny grey scales and Raya paused to focus her aim at one of its huge green eyes.

She took the shot and her aim was never better, striking true on the creature's horrid features and sending it into a rage.

It roared, blinded in one eye but still standing and still alive. Raya lined up her blaster to take a shot at the other eye but it was already rushing towards her, mad and hungry and impossible to predict. She grit her teeth and pulled the trigger, landing a glancing blow on its scaly jowl as it bucked its head at the last second.

And now it was too late. The beast was racing towards her at full speed and her charric couldn't slow it down. A shot in the mouth? The head? Nothing was working. The t’repsani was only a few metres away now. And just as it reached Raya, the bulkhead sectioning off that segment of the transfer corridor slammed shut in front of her.

She could hear the clang of the metal vibrating as the monster crashed into it from the other side.

"Come on!" she heard Soren's voice beside her. "It won't hold long."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the pfalesfir door where the roar of the t'repsani was reverberating loudly. Raya let him guide her away, picking up speed and momentum as she turned to run in the opposite direction.

They sprinted down the corridor, out the entrance and into the stairwell, letting go of each other's hands to descend each flight of stairs with an acrobatic jump or a wall run. In less than a minute, they had descended six floors but Soren kept going.

"Wait!" Raya shouted. "We just passed the waste management level."

"I know!" he yelled back without stopping.

"What? Why are we- urgh!" she groaned in frustration and continued after him.

Soren kept running. If he stopped, there was every chance the panic would set in and he'd be trapped in the stairwell, unable to move for however long it took for the attack to pass. He always worked better under pressure and his brief examination of the terminal had revealed to him the perfect opportunity to end the t'repsani's threat entirely.

He reached the correct floor and swung off the doorframe, hopping onto the thin maintenance platform, he sprinted across the suspended catwalk. Raya followed without much trouble or enthusiasm. They crossed over the threshold to another maintenance catwalk and came out overlooking a giant spheroidal machine in the centre of a vast chamber, impossibly tall and cavernous.

"The generator?" Raya said, dropping speed.

Soren jogged over to a large wall-mounted control unit, covered in dials and switches and buttons and let himself stop to breathe. It was heavy and ragged and interspersed with gasps of pain as his heart beat faster and faster. He leaned on the console to steady himself but it still took more than a few minutes for him to recover.

Raya kept her charrics up, scarlet eyes searching the darkness for enemies and danger.

"What are we doing here, k'rahtu?" she barked.

Soren managed to pull himself together enough to make whole sentences.

"The generator," he wheezed as he began fiddling with the controls.

"You want to get the power back online?"

"The waste management system was locked down with the rest of the prison. We'll need power to open the floodgates." He pulled down a lever, initiating the manual override to restart the generator.

Raya leaned against the railing, watching the huge metallic sphere below them break free of the icy frost which had built up in the interim of its function. It crackled and snapped as the sphere began spinning faster on its own axis and soon a low hum murmured through the chamber, the gentle blue glow of its energy output contained within a clear serapfis bubble.

With every infinitely swift revolution of the generator, power was returned to the prison's facilities. First, warmth. Then, light. And soon, the terminals around them began working again.

Soren quickly approached one of the freshly revived holoterminals and wiped his defrosting nose on his sleeve. Reanimated somewhat by the rise in temperature, he began heatedly tapping at the keypad and several holographic projections of the generator's cross-section appeared above the terminal.

"What are you doing?" Raya asked, watching the overlays appear and disappear before him.

"I'm programming random variances into the stabilizer so that it gradually desynchronizes from the core..." he muttered, still staring at the projections.

"You want to blow the generator?" She raised an eyebrow. "You just got it back online."

"Ma'resh, we have destroy everything down here..."

"Because of one t'repsani? We can just kill it," she said uncertainly. "Somehow..."

"It's not just one," he said, wiping his nose again. "The one I saw on the top floor was different, so there are at least two."

"That doesn't-"

"I sliced into the lower level schematics. There are laboratories down there. Incubators instead of prison cells. They must have been breeding them."

"What? Why would they do that?" 

"There's more than one way to make a monster..." he murmured. 

"You think the military was breeding t’repsiani for combat?"

"I don't know but the name, Project Tsuris, came up several times in the files. There's a high probability it wasn't just t'repsani they were breeding down there. In any case, they need to be destroyed before they break loose. That's why the complex was locked down."

"You think the Shadow Operatives have been evacuated?"

"I don't know. Fifty-fifty odds. If we're still here, it means they haven't given up hope on salvaging this place. Must be waiting for the Defense Force to send in a reclamation crew..."

"And you thought of all this just now?"

"What did you think I was doing while you were fighting?"

Raya smirked. "Being scared shitless?"

"Ma'r... that too." He frowned, concentrating on the projections.

Raya left him to it. She turned and leaned against the railing of the maintenance platform, watching the generator spin so fast it had become nothing more than a big ball of blue light. She looked down at the floor below, nothing but machines and metal spiralling out from the generator's base.

Soren’s words troubled her. If he was right, they weren't the only monsters the Expansionary Defense Force was creating.

Raya had been to Korriban and Dromund Kaas, the Sith Homeworlds. She'd seen the Tukata and the Vine Cats, the Yozusks and Sleens and K'lor'slugs and Shyracks, the Gundarks and Jorgurans and so many others, she had not. The Shadow Operatives were being specifically trained to resist and combat Force-users like Jedi and Sith but she never really stopped to think about any other potential threats to the Ascendancy. Soldiers and troopers and spies were just as likely to pose a problem but sub-intelligent species? Was it really necessary to weaponize their own fauna?

Not for the first time, Raya wrestled with the Ascendancy's hypocritical values in her head. This war the Sith had started with the Republic - it had nothing to do with the Chiss. Why were they trying so hard to win it for them? Why did they need monsters when there were plenty of warriors in both the Expansionary and Defense Forces?

She supposed it didn't matter. Whatever the case, her duty was to carry out orders, not make decisions on behalf of the Ascendancy. Only the Ruling Families could do that and Raya was as common as a flake in the snow.

When she was younger, her mother would always say she was special, destined for greater things and for the longest time, Raya had believed her. But then she passed on and her father decried any ounce of her individuality. He was a military man, consumed by duty and honor as most Chiss were but he failed to see anything in Raya's future but the same stoic service he had exemplified himself.

It was the thing Raya hated most about the Ascendancy. No room for the individual when there was already a crowd. Even now, she was dressed in the same uniform as the boy behind her and a hundred other cadets in the Program. Despite her superior ability, here she was, following the command of this clumsy little k'rahtu because he was acting in the Ascendancy's best interest.

She sighed, looking down at the machinery below as it glittered in the bright blue glow of the generator. Something shifted in the metallic maze and Raya perked up, eyes wide and scanning for abnormalities.

"There's something down there," she said, leaning over the railing to get a better look.

"Mmm?" Soren turned.

"It looks like..." She strained her eyes and sure enough, several steel coloured creatures were shifting around below them. Raya quickly fired several warning shots and the creatures scattered away from the blue bolts, revealing their furry little bodies as they scrambled to escape.

"Lyu’usen," she said, turning her head.

"Whatever," Soren shook his head. "They're not a threat."

Raya looked back down to find the creatures missing. Her keen eyes found them huddled in the darkness beneath the maintenance platform, a furry pile of shivering critters pushing up against the wall in fright.

Then one of them jumped, unleashing its claws and carving a path into the pfalmean to support its weight. It climbed the unscalable wall with relative ease and Raya felt herself frown.

"We've got a problem," she said.

"Well, handle it," Soren shrugged. "I'm almost done.”

Raya let go of the railing and doubled back onto the catwalk to get a better view of the ascending creatures. She pulled out both pistols and fired six shots in straight succession, each one hitting its target and felling her quarry. The tiny creatures toppled one another from the height they'd climbed and landed in a big pile beneath the maintenance platform. 

Raya grinned. Her aim was still perfect. But then the pile of supposedly dead fur-balls began to tremble and move. One of the lyu’usen climbed up over its fallen brothers and let out a high-pitched squeal that echoed through the chamber. Raya quickly snuffed it with another shot from her charric but it was too late.

"What's going on?!" Soren called out. The clattering of minuscule feet grew louder as a horde of the creatures converged on the generator room to avenge their fallen brethren. 

"I thought you were handling it!" he yelled over the growing clatter as the creatures scurried out of every vent and across every wall.

"I _am_ handling it!" Raya replied angrily, shooting down a dozen furballs as she spoke.

"Why are they attacking?! They're supposed to be docile!"

"I don't know, k'rahtu. Work it out!" she yelled back, continuing her barrage of bolts.

The lyu’usen were coming out in force now, spilling over the walls and rushing towards them, their intent unclear. One creature leapt onto the catwalk and rushed at Raya on its four crooked paws.

She shot it down but several more fell from the ceiling and latched onto her arms, sheering her armour and painfully sinking their claws into her flesh. But Raya didn't flinch. She knelt down and rammed her arm into the railing, crushing several lyu’usen spines and repeating the motion to the other side.

Their grip broken, the creatures fell apart, crumpling to the floor dead as Raya shook her shoulders free. She pushed through the pain to continue firing and quelling the horde but it was of little use. 

A single warrior against an army of farmers would eventually fall to an untempered blade. She remembered the story her father had told her, to be mindful of the numbers of her enemy and choose her opponents wisely. This had been a poor decision.

The minor threat of the lyu’usen could have easily been ignored but instead she chose to engage them, winning a relatively small battle but at the same time initiating a large-scale war she could not win.

"Ktah!" she swore as another creature latched onto her leg; its four steely grey eyes abhorrent as it bit into her thigh.

She blasted it off and maintained her offensive, downing more targets than she'd ever had in practice. But she was getting worn out. The injuries weren't helping either and just as she thought she was spent, a blinding white light exploded above her, spilling electrical discharge into the lyu’usen horde.

"Ch'tra!" she heard Soren's voice beside her and she set off at a run back down the walkway, shooting her way forward to make sure the path was clear.

She felt Soren grab her hand again and pull her to the side. They re-entered the stairwell and Raya heard the door slam shut, bolted manually from within. It took a few minutes to regain her sight and when she could finally see again, she found Soren plastered against the wall, panting and shivering with fright.

The lyu’usen were already scratching and scuttling on the other side of the door, squealing through the pfalmir at their lost prey. She lowered her blasters and leaned against the wall opposite Soren, trying to catch her breath.

"What did you do?" she asked him breathlessly. 

"I..." he gasped. "I disabled the microwave compressor in my charric pistol." He breathed clutching at his heart.

"Th-the particles couldn't be focused through the... crystal when I pulled the trigger. So when I threw it..."

"It blew up," Raya finished for him. "Neat trick."

"Ma'r," he groaned. "But now I'm unarmed."

"Here, take one of mine," she offered.

"Chen. You keep it." He shied away. "You're a better shot, anyway."

"Fine, stay close to me," she said, raising her weapons.

Soren frowned meekly, obviously uncomfortable at the thought of being close to her but peeled himself off the wall nonetheless.

"Or as close as you can." Raya smirked and leapt up the stairs two at a time.

Soren made to follow her at a much slower pace, breathing unevenly and cringing slightly. His heart was beating loud enough to deafen him but he couldn't ignore the vibrating door they'd left behind. They had around twenty minutes before the generator was destabilized and perhaps a few minutes on top of that for it to explode and kill every living thing down there.

Raya was already two flights ahead, blasters reloaded and ready to fire but there weren't any visible enemies around. She glanced down through the railings to watch Soren climb up another set of steps, a little more energetic than before but still trailing.

She wondered if she should just abandon him. It wasn't far to the waste management level and she could get the floodgates open by herself. She watched him silently creep up the steps and moved on, any closer and she'd set off another panic attack. He had debatably saved her life twice now. Did she owe him for that?

Soren was painfully aware of his condition as he followed her up. His ears were throbbing with the blood his heart kept pumping out, thickened by the cold and now thawed by the restored heat. But then his ears twitched, picking up some other distant sound he couldn't quite identify. He strained through the rhythmic beating of his heart, trying to ignore it and focus on the far-off tremors. Trembling. Rumbling. Familiar.

"Raya..." he mumbled.

 _"What?"_ she spat, annoyed by the time it was taking, but then she heard it too. "It's back," she said, pointing her blasters up.

"There are two..." he whispered, listening for the approach of both creatures. "One above, one below," he told her, making his way up.

"...ktah..." she mumbled under her breath. "How are they tracking us? The power's back on, our body heat should be masked."

"Your blood..." Soren thought aloud. 

Raya looked down at her arms and legs. The borrowed armour was torn and soaked dark red. The wounds weren't fatal but they would slow her down, limit her strength, her speed. And she would need all of it for the fight to come.

"Tchh..." she cursed herself for getting injured. Rookie mistake. “How far up is it? Can we make it to level 12?"

Soren closed his eyes and listened for the rumbling call of the t'repsani, trying to gauge the distance between them.

"Maybe four floors away?"

"We'll never make it with you hobbling along like that." She shook her head.

The rumbling growl below them intensified as the creature entered the stairwell, claws scraping on the floor as it moved.

"Go," Soren whispered. "You can make it on your own. It'll be killed when the generator explodes anyway."

"What about you?"

Soren shook his head.

"Does it matter?" he frowned meekly.

Raya pouted her voluptuous lips into the most annoyed smirk a Chiss could exhibit and punched him straight in the face.


	4. Through the flames

Soren flew back into the wall and cracked his head against plafmir. Raya caught him as he fell unconscious and threw his limp body over her shoulder. She took the steps three at a time, sprinting to make it up to level twelve before the second t'repsani entered the stairwell.

The boy was a little heavier than she expected but Raya ran laps through the Shadow Base pool strapped with weights every day. This was nothing. Not even her injuries or the cold or the hunger could slow her down if she really wanted something and Raya wanted very much, to live. Surprisingly with the windbag over her shoulder.

Level Thirteen. 

Three more flights and she was there. Just hold out, one leg at a time, up and up and up and breathe. And then she tripped. The bloody thigh she'd shaken off as a graze, stabbed her right leg as she took the next few steps and the muscle cramped painfully. 

"No... not now..." she muttered as she pulled herself up by the railing. Soren's arms dangled uselessly behind her and his face smacked against her ass as she pushed herself up the remaining steps with far less speed.

 _Good thing he's unconscious,_ she thought irritably. _Would have had a heart attack by now._

The low rumbling of the t'repsani suddenly increased in volume and in the distant crest of the stairwell, she could see its silvery grey shadow picking up speed. The creature below had spotted her too and the rival which was determined to steal its prey.

Raya felt fear and urgency take root in her heart. She pushed herself through the pain and climbed up the last flight of stairs with a contemptuous hiss. She threw herself through the entrance to Level Twelve and dumped Soren's unconscious body on the ground.

The door…

She had to close the door.

There was no time for fancy slicing wizardry or clever tactics. Raya grabbed the plafmean slab and slammed it shut just as the trepsiani came bounding down the steps. She took a step back and with a controlled breath and a small squat, she launched herself into the air and performed a forward somersault, sticking the landing on the door handle which snapped under the force.

She could hear the reptilian hiss and screech as the creature slammed into door again, denied its prize a second time. But then Raya remembered her first encounter. She'd taken its eye. But this one still had both. Soren was right, there was more than one. Who knew how many could be down there? She knew only that they had to be destroyed.

She looked down at the limp form of the boy on the floor and shook her head.

"Heroic little shit," she muttered to herself. "Thinks he can single-handedly save Shadow Base? Over my dead body..."

She grabbed his collar and pulled him after herself, proceeding into the waste management services level. The faint sound of scraping and screeching drifted out from the door behind her but Raya had no time to be scared or consider how long the door could hold out. That was a job for Soren and he was out cold. 

She limped through the hallway and the sensor lights steadily gained iridescence, illuminating the walls of the sanitary disposal facilities around her. 

Wherever there were people, there was waste. And a lot of it.

The first section was dedicated to mechanically sorting garbage into categories. The polymers and metals were extracted and recycled. The organic matter processed and reused as compost and fertilizer to grow food in underground greenhouses. And the rest would be incinerated. 

She passed by the furnaces once used to do just that, now black and charred. And at the very end of the long series of chambers and rooms used to process the prison's refuse, was the final station. Biowaste.

Every refresher, rinser and sink flushed their water supply into the plumbing which connected in some way to the huge pfalesfir pipes of the waste management facility.

Raya thanked the wonders of Chiss engineering as she passed them by. For each pipe was vacuum sealed so no odour or leakage could escape their confines while the waste was being transported to its final destination.

Frankly, Raya felt as shit as the turds passing through the prison's plumbing as she dragged herself up to the controls of the floodgate. Training or no, this little adventure had been more than enough to demonstrate her weaknesses. Starting with her attitude and finishing with her lack of technical expertise, she was incapable of completing a mission like this on her own and it bothered her immensely.

She set Soren down beside the terminal and booted up the weary old fossil that controlled the great gate before them. It looked just like the schematic Soren had showed her, except for the great big pfalmean door closing it off. But that was easily remedied.

She pulled the holo-badge from Soren's pocket and the terminal granted her access. With a quick tap of the screen, the floodgate before them rattled and shook as the gears and cams worked behind the scenes to lift it up. The simplest things still used the simplest technology.

The weary cadet wrinkled her nose as the putrid smell of sewage assaulted the air. The mess of excreta was warm and gooey as it floated out from under the rising gate and filled up the deep pool which had been carved into the mirai'nis floor. Sewage pipes had to be heated on Naporar, else they froze from the bitter cold but it definitely didn't help the smell.

Raya spied some equipment lockers to her right, labelled for the sewage maintenance crew. She left Soren by the console and wandered off to prepare for their journey but the lockers were locked. 

Surprise, surprise.

Raya snapped them with her bare hands and opened the door to inspect the neatly packed items designed for sewer sight-seeing and blockage removal. A quick speed-read of the labels and Raya pulled out a bright red packet containing a self inflating raft.

She tore open the package without reading the instructions and pulled all the necessary toggles for the raft to start inflating. The emergency procedures drilled into her brain took over her body and pretty soon Raya had assembled everything she would need and began stripping down to put on the bright red haz-vac suit. She slipped on the helmet and pressurized it, pulling another one off the hook for Soren but the distant sound of bending metal interrupted her.

The t'repsani were almost through. There was no time to get him into a haz-vac suit. She needed to get him on the raft.

It was almost fully inflated so she kicked it off the edge and let it bob gently on top of the building level of liquid waste. She tied it to a small hook and hurried over to gather up the unconscious Chiss just as the pfalmean door at the far end of the level wrenched open. The t'repsani spilled out, far more monstrous in the bright light and dashed for the struggling cadet.

Raya forced her way back to the raft, gritting her teeth as she pushed through the pain in her leg and arms. She returned to the bright red buoy and lay Soren inside, untying the knot to set him adrift towards the rising gate. With that out of the way, she rushed back to the console, painfully aware of the three huge reptilian creatures that were clearing the space between them in a fraction of the time Raya had needed to do so.

She was almost there. A few more steps. That's all it took but it became obvious that she wasn’t going to make it. She needed a distraction.

Raya pulled the blaster off her belt and bent the compressor out of shape, pulling the trigger as she lobbed the firearm into the t’repsani's path. The cylinder exploded in mid-air and released a familiar blinding light but she shut her eyes and turned away to avoid it.

Just a few more steps. She knew where to go and her legs took her there, quickly bringing the control console to bear beneath her fingers. Raya pressed both thumbs into either side of the screen, the universal Chiss protocol for visual impairment. A low mechanized voice read out the screen options in Cheunh and Raya shouted for the third to be selected.

The command was accepted and the gate which had risen completely to allow the flow of waste, began to descend.

"Ma'resh," Raya breathed through the helmet.

Now all she needed to do was get on the raft that was gently floating towards the gate with Soren still inside. She heard the scraping of claws on pfalesfir and dove to the left, rolling and coming up just short of a lunging t'repsani as it slammed into the control console.

Raya pulled out her remaining charric and fired three shots in that direction, straining to regain her sight as the makeshift flash grenade lost it brightness. She saw shadows first, then shapes, then finally the outline of three huge muscled reptiles with spikes and dead bodies protruding from their backs.

She breathed in and out, watching them hiss and twist, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

It wasn't long before one of the creatures lunged for her and Raya launched herself into the air, as high as her powerful legs would take her, jumping over the three monsters as they scrambled to attack the spot she'd just left. The first of them was knocked into the pool of filth that had accumulated near the floodgate but the t'repsani could swim and the putrid nature of its surroundings did not concern it in the slightest.

Raya looked over at the bright red raft that would soon pass through the closing gate with Soren still aboard. Easy pickings for the monsters if she didn't recapture their attention.

"Vaei!" she yelled, pulling out the bed post she had strapped to her belt. Raya was never without a melee weapon, she felt naked without a knife or a club in her hand. She swung the metal pole around, hitting hard against one of the pipes and the sound reverberated a hundredfold through the steel enclosure.

The t'repsani instantly swam back to shore and emerged from the filth while its peers approached her on land. They reared back on two hind legs and towered above Raya as they took a swing at the young Chiss with their vicious claws.

She leapt back, narrowly avoiding their blows and landing painfully on her crippled leg.

"Now what?" Raya thought angrily.

Her hand reached out for purchase and serendipitously found the handle of a gas-lighter. Surprised but not disappointed, she stowed her blaster and gripped it tightly, an idea burgeoning in her mind. 

She got up and dashed into the furnace room as the reptiles followed on all six feet, swishing their long, powerful tails. They pushed and shoved each other out of the way, competing for the grand prize of wearing Raya’s skin on one of their backs but she wasn’t planning on giving them the satisfaction. 

Her keen eyes quickly spotted a stack of barrels with seventeen warning labels on them and she rushed to hide behind the wide pfalesfir cylinders. Then she pushed them over and rolled them across the floor, into the incoming lizard beasts. 

The creatures lashed out with their razor sharp claws and teeth, spilling the contents of each barrel in their fervent search for Raya but she was long gone. The flammable liquid flooded the furnace room floor and soaked each lizard in its viscous embrace, impossibly sticky and difficult to traverse.

The cunning cadet used her head start to bolt for the floodgate. She had to time the jump right if she was going to make it. 

She flicked on the gas lighter as she left the furnace room and tossed it over her shoulder, freeing her hands to make certain she could maneuver her body correctly. The liquid soaking the t'repsani was labelled k'rfumi'sun. Aptly named 'firestarter'. For when the lighter made contact with the floor, a bright blue flame billowed out, scorching everything in its path. 

The three beasts roared and squealed and hissed in pain as the fiery trap snapped shut. Their claws were melted and fused into the floor, their scales scorched black over ashen flesh. The Chiss corpses on their backs evaporated into cinders and the heat curled their spines into black and twisted gnarls.

Raya grinned but then quickly refocused. The raft was slowly disappearing into the darkness beyond the steadily closing floodgate. She had to jump now or she wasn't going to make it.

One deep breath and-

She pushed off the broken command console and leapt into the air, propelling herself forward and out over the putrid filth below. It wasn't really life-threatening but she sincerely didn't want to go swimming in the river of waste if she could help it.

The jump carried her through the narrowing opening between the gate and the water and she reached out to grab onto the edge of the raft as she landed. The force made it bob violently to and fro but it soon evened out and Raya scrambled inside to collapse next to Soren's unconscious body.

Safe.


	5. Aches and Pains

She let herself rest as the raft bobbed along, drifting down the giant underground sewer line, a steady current nudging them gently towards their destination. 

Raya took the time to catch up on the aches and pains of her injuries. Every cut began to sting and every bruise radiated painfully against her flesh, slowly trying to mend itself but she smiled despite it all. There was nothing sweeter than proving to herself that she was still the best at what she did.

She turned her head lazily to one side but the haz-vac helmet was blocking her view and she had to crane her neck to see Soren's placid face, still unconscious, across the way. The big black eye she'd given him was already gone. His healing abilities were far beyond her own but he was still out, a trickle of dried blood dribbling from his nose.

Had she hit him too hard? Was he healing internal brain damage she couldn't see? She’d seen him heal worse but the questions lingered.

Her ponderings were interrupted by a muffled boom that echoed from the distant entrance to the tunnel. The vibrations sent a massive wave rippling through the river of filth below.

Raya quickly secured her haz-vac suit to the raft and grabbed onto Soren as the wave lurched beneath them, threatening to flip over their tiny vessel. But as all Chiss inventions, the buoyant little raft held true and remained upright as the turbulent wave passed harmlessly underneath.

Raya pulled Soren's head up and rested it on her lap so he wouldn't swallow any of the putrid water that spilled into the raft in the wake of the wave. She was safe in her haz-vac suit but he was still wearing the blackened grey uniform of the Shadow Operatives. It wasn't designed to be worn in sewers filled with hazardous waste. They had a different outfit for that.

She let out a long tired breath.

The bioluminescent strips that ran down each side of the vast tunnel glowed aqueous green in the darkness. Their light was just bright enough to read the global positioning coordinates etched into the mirai’nis walls at regular intervals.

According to the numbers, they were still many visvia away from the city but at least the prison had been destroyed. Not just anything could make a pfalmean floodgate bend and moan like that and Raya breathed easier knowing the monsters inside had been utterly crushed under the weight of the collapsed prison.

She wondered if there had been any structural damage to the complex above ground. Or if her classmates had been evacuated before the generator exploded.

The Overseers would have known it was rigged to blow. They were always watching, always listening and as soon as the power had been restored, Huonn and Rhonko and all the others would have been monitoring their progress.

They would know they escaped. They would know where they were going. And as soon as clean-up operations were complete, they would send someone to come find them.

It made Raya feel very lonely all of a sudden. The tunnel had become eerily quiet after the tidal wave passed and the sound of her own raspy breathing inside the helmet did very little to comfort her.

She looked down at Soren, still completely oblivious to what was happening around him.

"Lucky k'rahtu," she muttered.

The faint green light caught something glittering on the back of his head and Raya parted the deep blue locks of matted hair to find something else. Silver. A small tuft of it was growing underneath the rest, hidden from view by its usual volume but when flattened…

Raya singled out the grey to examine more closely. It wasn't a natural colour. Chiss didn’t grey. At least not on Naporar. It was weird.

Curious and impulsive, Raya picked at the silver tuft and pulled hard, endeavouring to remove just a single strand but her hands were gloved and slippery and she ended up ripping out the whole bunch.

Soren cried out and sat up, clutching at the back of his aching head.

"Tssss," he hissed, rubbing the sore spot with his fingers.

The culprit quickly tossed the bundle of hair over the side of the raft and pretended she wasn't paying attention. 

When his eyes stopped watering, Soren looked around to find himself drifting down the river of sewage. The smell soon assaulted his senses and he quickly pulled his collar over his nose to block it out. Upon turning, he found a bright red haz-vac suit sitting close by and realized it must be Raya beneath the reflective brelefis surface.

His eyes widened and he quickly shifted himself as far away from her as possible.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice muffled through the fabric of his uniform.

"I got us out," Raya said coolly, her own voice distorted through the helmet.

Soren quickly put together the chain of events that must have led them to where they were now and lowered his brow.

"You hit me," he grumbled.

"Would you prefer the t'repsani hit you instead?" Raya smirked, her face invisible through the reflective surface of the mask.

"You outran them?" he asked, surprised and simultaneously impressed. "Carrying me?"

"Ma'resh," she grinned proudly. "Then I set them on fire."

_"With what?"_

"There were several kegs of k'rfumi'sun near the furnaces on the waste management level."

"Seriously? That stuff is nasty. Arko once spilled a little on his hand. It took him months to regrow the skin," he reminisced working with the volatile chemical.

"There was a lot of fire." Raya nodded approvingly.

"What about the generator?" he perked up.

"It blew a few minutes ago, sent a big wave through the water. Pretty sure it did its job."

"Mmm," he nodded, his eyes glazed over in thought. Then he sank back against the side of the raft and sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I wasn't very helpful back there..."

Raya looked over at his dejected expression and remembered her own sorry state back in the cell when she'd balled up in front of him. She could not have gotten that door open without Soren and she would never have known how to escape or restart the generator if he hadn't been there. 

Maybe he wasn't as useless as she thought?

"It was a team effort, alright? You did what you could," she said stiffly. "Probably saved a bunch of people from getting killed by all the monsters down there."

"Rhonko's gonna kill me..." he muttered, hugging his knees.

Raya rolled her eyes under the helmet. "And why would he do that?"

"All my plans end with something blowing up. First, the laboratories and now this..."

"I'm sure he'll be lenient considering the circumstances," she said. "Besides, Huonn will gut me way before Rhonko ever touches you."

"What do you mean?"

"These lyu’usen cuts are really deep, they're gonna leave scars and Huonn will want to remove them. Surgically, if necessary."

She winced and shifted in the itchy suit.

"I'm supposed to take care of my body like it's worth several million chousen," she tried to imitate Huonn's strict schoolteacher voice. "Because it is."

Soren looked away and smiled. It was the first Raya had ever seen him do. His face softened up and brightened the mood. It was kind of cute compared to his usual scowl and sour expression. But the smile soon faded as his stomach let out a hungry moan.

"Nnnn," he groaned, hugging his legs again and burying his face.

Raya tilted her head.

"There should be some rations in the emergency supply kit."

Soren looked up and followed the angle of her mask to the small red suitcase on the other side of the raft. Eager for sustenance, he crawled over and opened it, rummaging around for food.

"Grab me one, too," Raya called out, removing her helmet and depressurizing the suit. Hygiene be damned.

Sweat matted her hair and glued it to her scalp. Her face was flushed and warm but she breathed in deeply, despite the foul fumes of the river around them, glad to be out of the brelefis mask which had confined her so. The gloves came off next. She felt the warmth of her forehead against the back of her hand as she wiped the sweat from her brow and frowned. She was running a fever.

Undoing the straps and unbuckling the overalls, Raya peeled off the top of her suit to examine her aching arms. Soren turned around with a ration bar sticking out of his mouth and another two in his hands, his eyes widening when he spotted the dark green blotches of pus oozing out of the wounds on Raya's arms.

"That's infected," he mumbled through the ration bar in his mouth.

"Bre'es'nai, k'rahtu!" she hissed at him angrily. "Get the med-kit. Maybe there's some chadris."

"Chadris isn't going to help you," he said solemnly, putting back the ration bars. "The black part is already necrotic. It can't be healed..."

"Just give me the damn medkit, chun'dai!" she barked at him, visibly shaken.

Soren packed up the emergency supplies and fished out the silver medical suitcase beneath them. He spun open the clasp and lifted the lid, revealing a collection of neatly compartmentalized equipment, bandages and medicines.

Raya looked down at her arms as the green welts slowly spread over her pale blue skin and bit her lip.

"Huonn's definitely going to kill me," she murmured as her anger transitioned into despair. "She'll never let me amputate..." 

"Here," Soren passed her a sealed brelu-pac across the raft.

"What is this?" she took it from him quizzically.

"Sterile wipe," he said without turning around.

"I asked for chadris, you piece of bre'eska!" She pelted the brelu-pac at him.

"Chadris is useless now." He shook his head and flicked it back at her. "It'll just seal up the wound and let it fester."

He rolled up his sleeve and ripped open another packet to reveal a tiny piece of fabric. It was moist with disinfectant and spread a clear blue liquid over his sapphire skin.

"Wipe your arm with it," he told her, inserting a long needle into a large vein on his own.

"You want to give me blood?" Raya puzzled. 

"You have a better idea?"

"You don't even know if we have the same blood type." 

Soren paused, his shoulders tense. He swallowed and turned his head slightly.

"I do," he said.

“What?” 

"It's the reason we were paired."

A moment of silence passed as Raya stared at the back of his head in disbelief. More than once, she had wondered why the Overseers so adamantly pushed them together. To torment her, she'd thought. To humiliate her. Or just on a whim. She had considered many possibilities but in the end, it was so simple. They were each other's donors.

"You're Group 4 positive?" she asked.

"Ma'r. Same platelets."

Raya frowned, examining her arms again. The pain didn't seem half as bad as the physical manifestation of her injuries but if she didn't do something soon, she would lose both arms and a leg and they were still several hundred visvia away from civilization.

She tore open the brelu-pac and wiped down her arm as Soren had done. Choosing the one less damaged, she flicked a finger at the inside of her elbow. Soren passed her the other end of the translucent tube he'd attached to himself. It was dark red and dripping from the other end as Raya gingerly took it from him, avoiding direct contact.

"You're too far away," she said as the tube snagged before it could reach her arm.

Soren bristled but conceded and shuffled a little closer, still facing the other way while Raya carefully inserted the needle into her arm. It pinched but she could feel the warm flow of blood as soon as it went in.

"You think it'll help?" she asked his back.

"It should..." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "It won't heal the dead tissue but you should regrow it as soon as the venom is neutralized."

"Venom?"

"Lyu’usen secrete something called bakuneisia to help break down the food they find into digestible chunks. They must have been modified to do this instead."

"It doesn't feel any different than a normal cut..." She looked down at the pfillo-glass needle in her arm.

“The most effective venom or poison is the one you don’t notice until it’s too late,” Soren noted. “We have at least a basic immunity. Remember the first year when they'd slip it into our food?"

Raya smiled, remembering the majority of the cadets excusing themselves over and over to visit the refresher.

"And no one could figure out why they couldn't stop shitting themselves..." she smiled.

"A normal Chiss may not live to see side effects," Soren pondered as they drifted along. "Or a Human..."

His stomach let out another moan, begging for nourishment and Raya smirked.

"You never gave me that ration bar," she said, watching his ears wiggle excitedly.

He reached over to grab the case of emergency supplies, tearing through the items to find the discarded food sticks, one of which was already missing several bites worth. He stuffed it into his mouth and passed a brelu-pac over his shoulder to Raya.

She took it from him and they ate in silence, nibbling on the food sticks which changed flavour as they were consumed. They said nothing to each other as Soren's blood transfused into Raya's body. She could feel the wounds on her arms and legs buzzing gently, warm and raw but healing.

It took the best part of twenty minutes for the pus to dry up. The necrotic flesh flaked off and the wounds scabbed over, peeling away to reveal her pale blue skin, lighter and softer than the areas around the cuts. She felt herself relax, warming up from the inside as the prospect of living seemed more and more likely, and with all of her limbs intact.

Smug and smiling, she looked over at Soren who had been happily munching through their rations until now, still facing the other way, sitting as far as the tube between them would allow. He was still afraid to come near.

Raya examined her arms and checked her leg, brushing away the last of the green scabs and pus like a bad memory. His idea had worked. The blood in his veins contained healing properties she had never imagined possible but here she was, good as new, revived and ready to fight again.

"It worked," she said happily, removing the pfillo-glass needle from her newly healed arm.

"Thank-you." She held it out for him to see but he didn't respond.

Raya cocked an eyebrow.

"Here," she said, offering it to him once again but there was no answer. Was he ignoring her? The same childish tactics he had been using in the cell?

"Not this again..." Raya rolled her eyes and sighed. "At least take the stupid tube!" She flicked it at him, quickly irritated by his attitude but he still didn't say anything.

Suddenly infuriated, Raya grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, ready to yell at him some more but he immediately collapsed at her touch, falling back with the pfillo-glass needle still sticking out of his arm.

He was unconscious again, Raya realised and a guilty frown found her face.

His head rested on her lap with a vacant expression and Raya pushed the hair out of his eyes, mute and embarrassed at being angered so easily. She pulled the needle out and put away the tube, bandaging his arm before he lost any more blood unnecessarily.

His skin was a lot paler than it had been before and Raya felt a pang of guilt as she laid him out against the side of the raft, pulling a couple of blankets out for each of them sleep under. Three times she owed him now compared to his two.

_"Heroic little shit..." she mumbled under her breath as she hunkered down for the night. She'd get him back though. He'd see. Nobody could beat Raya._

_Nobody..._


	6. Drifting Apart

Raya awoke first, sampling the distinct pleasures of inner-sewer travel by inhaling the horrid smell and feeling the silty smooth muck beneath her cheek as she rested on the side of the inflatable raft. Suppressing her well-tamed gag reflex, she sat up and wiped away the gross sewer water that had fallen from the massive pipe's ceiling and sprayed up from the river while she slept.

At least we're not in the cell anymore, she told herself silently. It smelled awful but it was warm and there was food and a little light.

She reached over the slumbering bundle of blankets and blue hair beside her and pulled out the emergency supply kit. Some rustling and bustling revealed that there was only one food stick remaining out of a dozen. Evidently, her raft-mate had eaten all but one before passing out, which left them with less than an adequate supply in an emergency.

 _"...k'rahtu..."_ she grumbled as she leaned back.

They floated by another set of coordinates etched into the wall and Raya's outlook brightened. They had travelled a long way since their journey began, the current of the sewage quickening as they headed deeper into the centre of the Naporis plateau. They would be near enough the city soon.

It had been five long years since she'd left home. 

They'd flown to Csilla, Copero, Sarvchi, Cioral, Avidich, Csaus, Abegon, Sposia and every other Ascendant planet. They'd been to Dromund Kaas, Korriban, Coruscant, Alderaan, Hutta, Nar Shaddaa, Corellia, Ilum and a dozen other worlds on missions and training exercises but always returned to Shadow Base at the edge of the Naporis plateau, landing in stealthed starships and taking every precaution to avoid being seen.

As far as the Ascendancy was concerned, the Shadow Operatives did not exist. Each one of the children that joined the Program were buried in empty caskets and what remained were two hundred ghosts of the Chiss they would one day become. 

None of them had full names anymore and even their Core names would be taken once the Program was finished, replaced by numbers to automatize them further. A perfect set of killing machines that could penetrate any society, any stronghold, any power structure. The perfect weapon against the Sith Empire.

Raya frowned, remembering the vid of her father attending her funeral. He knew what she was to become and he didn't shed a single tear during the procession. He stood there only as long as the ceremony lasted and walked off without a word once it was over, ready to forget his only daughter who'd given up her life, her honour and her identity. And for what?

In truth, Raya had wanted freedom.

The freedom to choose her own path. The freedom to leave the Ascendancy and go wherever she wanted but she quickly discovered that the freedom the Overseers had used to entice her was nothing but a lie. They kept their Shadow Operatives-in-training on a very tight leash, observing every move they made, moulding them into the shapes they chose and never letting them go anywhere without supervision or consent.

No matter how many times Raya asked for permission to visit Napor City, her requests were met with a resounding 'no' and a dismissal. Not only was it her former place of residence, but Raya still had living family there and any ties to them had to be completely severed. There could not be even the slightest chance of making contact and Raya knew they were afraid.

Afraid she would see her family again and immediately run away to be with them. But that was never going to happen. 

She didn't want to go back to her father. To the common lowborn family that cared little for the Csillan offshoots her mother had left them to raise upon her death. They called her spoiled and arrogant and Raya had never fit in among the rigid Naporari, showing more fire and individuality than the entire Nuruodo clan put together.

All she wanted now was to visit the ice rink where her mother had taught her to skate, to sit in the cosy little cafe across the street, sipping hot csimilla while the world continued to bustle outside the window. To feel one more time like there was something special about her that no one else would ever know.

Barring that, there was nothing left for her in the Ascendancy. Nothing to tie her down to this miserable place where she would always be restricted, her achievements accredited to the whole rather than the individual.

But soon her opportunity would come. She would see Napor for the last time and then she could leave. Forever.

Raya looked down at the brelu-packed ration bar in her hand, pondering whether to take a bite but abstained with a sigh.

It could wait.

\---

Soren opened his eyes a few hours later and Raya heard the moaning of his stomach before she ever heard him speak.

"Here." She threw the ration bar at his groggy face as it emerged from beneath the blanket.

"Mmm? Ah- tsss," he winced as the food stick smacked him in the face. "Stop hitting me..."

"I didn't hit you, k'rahtu." She rolled her eyes.

"A projectile weapon hits harder than a fist," he grumbled, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "And my name is Oren."

"You don't have a name, k'rahtu." She shook her head. "None of us do."

"You don't swear at any of the other guys," he complained. "You don't call Kreis or Pfir or Omu, k'rahtu."

"That's because Kreis is a man and a damn good operative. Unlike you, k'rahtu," she said irritably.

"Really? It's not because he fucks you whenever you feel like it?" Soren spat.

Raya narrowed her eyes. "You want me to hit you again? 'Cos I'll use my fist this time."

She watched the fear in his eyes mount as he cowered away from her again and hid under the blanket. The sound of rustling brelu drifted over his shoulder as he opened the food stick and began munching away on it hungrily.

 _Like a petulant child,_ Raya thought to herself, watching another set of coordinates drift past.

"We're getting close to the city," she said out loud.

The munching stopped and Soren looked up to see what Raya had seen.

"It's only fifty visvia away," he beamed up at the sign. "We're almost there..." 

The hint of a smile played at his lips as he nibbled on the food stick.

"You from Napor?" Raya asked, folding her arms.

He nodded, finishing off what was supposed to be a day's worth of nutrition in a matter of seconds.

"I could go home..." he muttered to himself, putting the wrapper back in the supply case.

"Can you eeh- turn around?" He peered over his shoulder.

Raya had been staring into space and suddenly realized she'd been looking right at him.

"What? Why?" She refocused.

"I need to... you know..."

"Ah. Be my guest," she said, gesturing to the river of sewage. "Not like anyone would notice." 

She looked away and adjusted the straps on her haz-vac suit while he relieved himself over the side of the raft.

"Are you from Napor, too?" he asked after a brief silence.

"Why do you care?"

"You don't look dark enough to be Naporari..."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" she fired up.

"Just an observation..." Soren sat back down, covering himself with a blanket.

He was getting awfully chatty with Raya for someone who was terrified of touching her but there wasn't any malice in his words like before.

"My mother was from Csilla," she said simply, leaning against the side of the raft. 

"Father in the military?"

Raya sighed. "Ma'r..."

 _"The men of Napor, were bred for the war, always to fight and to win..."_ he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"'A Gift to the People' by Hruoloro'ton'miurani. It's a poem."

"Tchh…” Raya let her head fall back onto the raft. “We're swimming through a river of bre’es, a hundred visvia below the surface and you want to read a poem?"

Soren shifted uncomfortably beneath the blanket and Raya could imagine him pouting through the woven fabric.

"Alright..." She rolled her eyes. "Let's hear it." 

She glimpsed his feet twitching excitedly.

 _Here we go..._ she thought irritably.

"What people are we who live by the sea,  
Of crystal and ice, are Chiss,  
The many and few of our world are true,  
To Csilla, our frozen hearth.

Our fire is bright and even the light,  
Of faint and brilliant extrusion,  
Shows us the sky and puzzles us why,  
Do any leave its safest illusion.

But apart from us stand, our brothers  
By hand, who come to us here  
From their stars, so very near  
And so very dear, without them we perish  
And falter. But what would it be, a gift  
By the sea, to honor them inside an altar.

The men of Napor, were bred for the war,  
Always to fight and to win. Their women,  
However, a flame in the ether, would  
Spark a heart cold and lead them all in.

On Copero, afore, they built ships ashore  
To ferry the people throughout, the Chiss  
Would have nought without their true  
Court and solitary remain aeonian.

Dewinged and decrowned, the Chiss  
Would have drowned if not for those  
Souls on Copero. 'Tis also been said-"

"How long does this go for?" Raya yawned, feeling herself drifting off. She had hoped poetry would alleviate her boredom, not compound it.

"It's a little long-winded, I suppose," Soren admitted, shrinking back under the blanket. “I’m not that good at reciting….”

He fell silent as Raya rolled her eyes.

"If you spent half as much time training as you did memorizing garbage poems, you'd make half a decent warrior," she told him curtly.

"I don't do it on purpose..." came the muffled reply.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she called him out. "How do you accidentally memorize an endless word pile like that?"

"I just... remember things..."

"Or you're making them up."

"It's a pretty famous poem..."

"Yeah, sure. And I'm Aristocra of House Sarnasu." 

\---

The hours drifted by like their little red raft floating down the stream of foul fluid and pretty soon the vast tunnel began to shrink and split and intersect with more and more of its peers, forming an intricate grid that mirrored the streets of Napor above them. The coordinates etched into the walls became street names and building numbers and every so often they would glimpse a small outcrop of pfalesfir and a ladder cut into the tunnel's wall. Entrances into the city.

"Where are we getting off?" Soren peered at the sign as they floated by.

"We?" Raya smirked.

"You know what I mean..."

Raya sat up and looked over at the passing sign which read, "Licsia Torminia 50".

They were almost there. So very close to the manhole that opened up behind the Euhuloron Theatre. 

Raya had passed it every day on her way home from school. The inconspicuous alley was always empty and off-limits to anyone but the theatre troupe who used it to sneak a smoke break between Acts. But big flashy warning signs had never discouraged Raya from doing whatever she wanted. It only took a little physical agility to hop the fence and sneak over to the other side of the alley, avoiding at least 4 blocks of walking distance and cutting her travel time considerably.

"Licsia Euhuloron," Raya said, pulling up the straps of her overalls.

"Near the theatre?" Soren asked excitedly.

Raya gave him one of her crowning dirty looks but it didn't dampen his enthusiasm.

"That's not far from the University," he said, shedding the blanket and folding it back up. He did the same with Raya's and packed them away in the supply case.

"Just leave it," she said. "It'll be incinerated once it reaches Perefos, anyway."

They passed another sign that read "Liscia Aruvial 36" and Raya slowly began to stand, stretching her limbs and muscles to prepare for disembarkation.

"It'll be the next one." Soren pointed at the small platform jutting out of the tunnel wall, vertical steps rising up into the ceiling.

"Follow my lead," she said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Ma'resh." He nodded, pulling a charric pistol out of the emergency supply case.

"Don't use it unless you have to," she warned.

"I know the drill," he mumbled irritably.

Protocol dictated that while amongst Chiss, they were to prevent casualties without compromising their identities. They were not be seen in public and would probably need disguises once they left the sewer so they wouldn't draw attention but Raya already had it all figured out.

She would sneak into the Theatre, steal some of their money and clothing and make a run for it before they knew what happened. There would be plenty of time to visit all the places she wanted to see, ditch Soren and hitch a ride offworld, away from the Ascendancy. And then her escape would be complete.

Soren stretched his arms up and yawned. He still felt incredibly tired and a little bit dizzy after the blood transfusion and the rations hadn't helped him recover all that much. He was hungry and tired and he wanted to go home. But where was that now?

He couldn't just stroll down the streets of Napor and barge in on his family, expecting to be welcomed back after the funeral. What would his parents think? What would they say?

Perhaps it was best if he didn't linger. He just needed to find a way to contact the Overseers and wait for them to pick him up. 

Raya obviously had plans of her own. He could see her plotting quietly across the raft and he didn't want any more trouble. The sooner they could part ways, the better. The Overseers could deal with her shenanigans separately and his part in their little duo would be over. A sudden wave of relief washed over him as he realized their adventure would soon come to an end and it bolstered his confidence.

Raya stepped up to the edge of the raft, prodding the side with her boot. She was still half clothed in the bright red haz-vac overalls with a thin singlet, slashed and torn and blood-stained, covering her large breasts.

Soren turned away as she bent down to test the density of the inflated tube. It would be inappropriate to stare. He wasn't much of a sight himself. His operative suit was scuffed and torn and stained but he was just a mangey grey blur compared to Raya's egregious red profile. They would make quite a pair on the surface and he'd need to get away from her as quickly as possible to avoid attracting attention.

She stepped away from the side and prepared to jump onto the approaching platform. Soren spied the words "Licsia Euhuloron 64" etched into the tunnel and moved out of her way. It was an easy jump but it needed to be timed right.

Raya bent her knees and took a breath, releasing it slowly and then she launched. Her powerful legs pushed her up and over the river of waste. Her body flipped in mid-air and landed clearly on the platform ahead, not waiting for Soren to follow before she started climbing up the ladder.

Soren took a deep breath and positioned himself to follow. He waited until the raft reached the shortest distance from the platform and performed a much less graceful leap over the water. He landed just short of the mark and plunged waist-deep into the muck before catching the ledge with his hands.

"Feugh..." he complained, pulling himself up and shaking out his boots. "Batev..."

He looked up to find Raya's red silhouette already halfway up the ladder and quickly made to follow before she decided to leave him down there as some sort of sick joke.

He hurried up and it wasn't long before he heard the frightful grinding of an impossibly heavy manhole cover sliding aside from Raya's efforts. A bright, white light beamed down through the opening, blinding him with its brilliance and purity.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust and he blinked continuously as he made his way up to the surface. Raya had already crawled through the opening and disappeared into the brightness, doubtless keen to be rid of him and run off to cause trouble.

He ascended the remainder of the pfalesfir rungs and poked his head out to find himself blinded once again by the brightness of the city. His body had been only too happy to adjust to the darkness of the prison and then the sewer, leaving him unprepared for the abrupt return to civilization. 

He crawled out of the opening in the ground and got up to find himself standing in a narrow alley between two steely grey buildings that rose interminably overhead. The sky was black but the endless light of the city trickled down from far above. Tiny flakes of snow drifted in to catch the light breeze, spinning and dancing through the air.

Soren felt himself smile just a little. He hadn’t realised how truly homesick he was until he stood between those two steely monoliths with snowflakes melting on his eyes. The place that had once been his home.

His contemplations were interrupted by a large chunk of snow that smashed into the back of his head. It sent him reeling and he fell forward into the slosh beneath his feet.

"Clothes off, k'rahtu." Raya wandered over carrying a ridiculously huge snowball. 

"Pt'eugh," Soren spat out the slush he’d swallowed. "Chah'v'ress'ranae a'k’ranis, pes'sa!" he hissed but Raya ignored his cursing. 

"You stink," she said curtly. "And so do your clothes," she pointed out, tossing her haz-vac overalls into the manhole.

Soren hissed angrily, scrambling to his feet to give her a piece of his mind but then Raya took a step forward and he froze.

"Do it yourself, or I'll do it for you." She raised her fist at him. "We both know how much you like to touch me."

"Like it's hard to see why." He shook his head, unsealing his jacket.

Raya's face hardened and not even her beauty could soften the murderous look she gave him as he peeled off the jumpsuit and tossed it down the manhole.

"And the shoes," she sneered. The giant snowball was melting in her hand, slowly sinking into her palm and she was in no mood to barter with him.

"There," he said as he tossed his boots down the manhole and hugged his arms, shivering violently from the cold.

"Good. Now take a shower," she said, dumping the snowball on his head.

The icy chunk broke apart and muffled his squeals, covering him from head to toe in the watery white mass.

The cocky young woman walked away to gather up more snow and rub the remaining bloodstains and pus-trails from her limbs. She brushed the white powder through her hair and combed out the filthy remains, washing herself clean of the sewer stink.

Soren's teeth chattered manically as he tried to rub the frosted flakes from his body. The resulting sludge dripped off him in sheets, taking the build-up of silt and sweat and dirt with it as Raya traipsed by in her underwear, paying him not slightest bit of attention.

She found the backdoor to the Theatre and snapped the lock, disappearing inside just as Soren cleared the last of the snow from his hair. It was only a few degrees below zero but his body was not nearly capable of withstanding Napor's breezy summers in the nude. 

He rubbed his arms and shivered, looking around to see where Raya had gone but there was no sign of the furious Chiss in the empty alley. Soren cursed himself for not thinking of an exit strategy sooner. He knew Raya enjoyed cruel pranks but he'd expected to be dunked in sewer water, not forced to strip down in the snow.

Now he couldn't move. His jumpsuit wasn't exactly warm but it was ambiguous enough to avoid people's attention. Unlike walking around naked. 

"...kt-ktah.." he chattered through the cold.

The door at the end of the alley creaked open and Raya suddenly emerged wearing a short blue anorak with a luxurious white fur trim. Tight thermal leggings stretched down to her feet, painting them mauve and ending in similarly furred blue leather boots.

She shut the door behind her quietly and floated over the slush towards the Chiss popsicle. There was a pile of clothes draped over her arm and she offered him a shirt with a soft mittened hand.

"Put these on," she said.

Soren didn't need to be told twice. He slid his arms through the sleeves, quickly sealing the shirt with jittery fingers, still freezing from the cold. She handed him trousers and socks and boots and a thick overcoat, finishing with a floppy cap that was far too big for him, much like the rest of the outfit.

It didn't matter though. The plain brown clothes were sufficiently warm for his body to stop shivering and he rubbed his hands together to speed up the process.

"Here." She handed him the mittens.

"But-"

"Just take them," she said, moving dangerously close.

So he did.

Raya pulled out a pair of sleek blue gloves from the pocket of her anorak and slipped them on.

"Cheh!" came a loud hiss from the alley's end.

The backdoor to the theatre had been thrown open and an angry man was staring at the two young Chiss who'd stolen some of their costumes.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he boomed.

The perpetrators simultaneously broke into a sprint towards the opposite side of the alley as the man came rushing towards them. Raya leapt high into the air, easily clearing the fence and flipping to land gracefully on the other side. Soren didn't chance it and stepped off the wall instead, using the momentum to push himself over and land in a forward roll.

They didn't stop to check if the man was following or calling for help. They sprinted across the street and ran into a crowded store, disappearing into the sea of Chiss and pretending to browse for groceries while simultaneously trying to reach the exit on the other side of the building. Once out, they sprinted through an arcade and made several turns, weaving their way through the streets to make sure they weren't being followed.

Soren soon found himself losing steam and falling behind Raya's quick step and light foot. She didn't give an inch and her speed was hard to match. He would have lost her ages ago if not for the crowd.

"Wait!" he called out, hard of breathing. "I think we lost him."

Raya had been so busy escaping, she hadn't noticed herself following a beaten track to her pre-determined destination. It was only a few more blocks to the ice-rink and she didn't need Soren with her. It was time to part ways.

She slowed down and moved off to the side, allowing pedestrians to pass and forget ever seeing her face. She blended into the shadow of a building and waited for Soren to catch up. It took him a great deal of manoeuvring to cut through the crowd and make it seem natural when in fact, he was beelining straight for her.

"Finally," she groaned as he approached.

"You're so fast..." he said breathlessly.

"You're too slow."

Soren panted, breathing out his fatigue. 

"What now?" he said.

"Our paths diverge," she replied matter-of-factly.

Soren frowned. It was just as he thought. She didn't need him anymore.

"You're not going back, are you?" He looked at her warily as the crowd passed them by.

"Viscim'sah, k'rahtu," she said, taking a step into the throng and within seconds, the sea of Chiss had swallowed her whole, leaving Soren completely alone.


	7. Memories

A lone boy stood in the shadow of a gleaming black monolith, its surface pearlescent and smooth, rising up into the sky. His sapphire skin was barely visible against the wall on which he leaned, watching as the world passed him by. He breathed in and out deeply, resting after running an impromptu marathon he had no chance of winning.

Raya was gone. Finally gone.

Two weeks of terror and trembling and panic attacks. Of fear and anxiety and hatred and disgust, stemming not only from her touch but from deep within himself.

He was afraid. So deeply afraid and he couldn't control it, evade it, avoid it or heal it.

He sighed, peeling himself off the wall and staring into the bustling street before him.

Napor City.

Ninety six million Chiss within eight thousand square visvia of urban metropolis. A forest of tall apartment buildings and spacescrapers reaching up to the misty black sky. The far-away stars shone brightly against the dark blanket of space where city lights were not already shining. 

Though there were very few daylight hours on Naporar due the planet’s skewed rotation, nothing could stop the Chiss from making the most of their time which was synchronized with Csilla. And even though they lived most of their waking hours in darkness, Napor City was a shining beacon in the icy wastes of Naporar.

Each building was outlined with neon, each window was silled with bright bars of light. The colours of Ruling Families burned brightly from the largest spacescrapers and the others stood tall, black against white. The roads rose up and around between them, snaking through hovering traffic signals that directed several million vehicles through the metropolis. Highways painted the sky silver with spirals of speeders stretching up and around the tall buildings in helixes that disappeared into the clouds.

People on the many-levelled streets rushed by in a blur. A direct goal in mind and a body in pursuit, not a one stopping to consider their surroundings or question their place in the grand scheme of things.

Naporari knew where they were going and when they would get there and what they would do when they got there and if one of them was interrupted or delayed from performing what they considered their duty? Well, then they weren't Naporari.

Soren watched as a young boy shuffled past him. His small frame was wrapped so tightly in scarves and coats by his overzealous mother that he looked more like a walking pillowcase than a boy. Nevertheless, he stoically shifted one foot in front of the other as he made his way home from school, an oversized satchel hanging from his back. But no one molested him as he made his incredibly laboured way down the street and a woman even offered to hold his hand as he crossed the road together with the rest of the crowd. 

He was safe in the Ascendancy. He was home.

Soren remembered his own mother walking him to school for the very first time.

He only needed to take the path once to memorize it but he still let her guide him through the crowds every day, happy to hold her hand and listen to her talk about her work. She would always find something interesting to tell him or an amusing anecdote to share. She never talked down to him. Never treated him like he was beneath her and he loved her for that. Missed her.

It was only a short distance from the 32nd public school on Liscia Trossmi to the University of Naporar and on some days, he wouldn't wait for her to come get him. He would race through the crowded streets and wander into the university halls, looking for her lecture room. He'd stand on his toes and peek through the window, listening attentively to the end of her lesson and she'd find him by the door when she left, grinning and happy to finally hug her.

Soren felt his legs subconsciously moving towards that very same place. Across the road, down the street, a left, then a right and another left, down three blocks to where his old school still stood. From there it was only a short walk to the University, past the Napor State Library and Museum of Naval History and there used to be an ice-rink just there…

In its place stood a tall modern shopping center, each level rising high into the sky like a helix of stacked tiles. Bright lights and neon signs ringed each floor and escaped every window, enticing and advertising every single household commodity a Chiss could ever want. His eyes were drawn in by the garish display and he found himself stopped in front of it, watching the throng of consumers rushing in and out.

Another lone figure stood paralysed in front of the entrance, oddly stationary against the rapid motion of the people around it. Soren recognized the dark blue ensemble with its white fur trim and his feet quickly brought him up behind Raya as she stared at the huge megamall in front of her.

"This used to be an ice-rink, you know," he said, trying to be conversational. He could see she was distracted.

Soren looked up at the two hundred stories of serapfis with a little disappointment.

"There was this really pretty lady who taught the kids from my school how to skate," he remembered suddenly. "They would all rush out onto the ice and I would just stand there, watching."

He pointed to a set of pfillo-glass cutlery in sixteen different colours adorning the display window where the barrier to the ice-rink had once been. He remembered straining to see over it, standing on his toes and pulling himself up to watch Eulora glide across the ice while the children attempted to copy her movements. She was always so quick to catch them before they fell.

"My father once took us to see her show at the Csiulascia. I've never seen anybody move like that."

He gingerly walked up beside Raya, ready for criticism and the impending death threats but she said not a word. His curious head turned to see her face stained with two milky trails of tears. They trickled down her chin and spilled onto her coat but she didn’t make a sound.

"What is it?" he asked, taken aback.

"It's gone..." she whispered. "It's all gone..."

Her knees gave way and she collapsed to the ground, clutching her arms around her. 

Soren could hear the silent hiss of despair floating up from her miserable form but he didn't know what to do. 

Was it something he said? Something he did?

He looked back at the tall building, so bright and busy and tried to piece it together.

The ice-rink was gone.

He turned around. The block behind him had also been refurbished. Even the ground beneath them had been repaved, the roads relined. Everything new and shiny and modern, with no trace of the old.

Only five years had passed since they'd left Napor City but that was a long time in the Chiss Ascendancy where children became adults in only ten years and planets were fully colonized in as little as twenty.

But there was something that couldn't change. Not if any Chiss could help it.

"No," he said suddenly, balling his fists. “There’s still something.”

Raya looked up at him miserably, doubt and despair worrying her pale blue face through the tears.

"I can show you,” he said timidly. "I-If you want?"

She looked up at him apprehensively for a moment but then wiped her nose and face, trying to make herself presentable.

Soren braced himself, closed his eyes and offered her a hand so she could get up but she didn't take it.

"Show me," her words rang through his ears and he opened his eyes to find her standing at a respectable distance.

Relieved, Soren relaxed and nodded.

"Come," he said, jumping into the crowd and leading the way to another well-ingrained memory.

He ducked through several streams of people but Raya had no trouble keeping up. Napor, born and bred, they swerved and dodged and weaved their way through the megapolis as Soren led them up to a turbolift. They ascended to the highest level of the Napor City Presidium and into the military sector.

The area in question was comprised of three tall spacescrapers, each concerned with a different field of logistics that involved the planet's defense. Economics, Politics and Justice. All the affairs of the Naporar Planetary Defense Force were managed in this high-security plaza, guarded by a platoon of seasoned warriors on each side.

Two shadows crept around the plaza to the fourth towerless corner. It was walled off by a tall pfalmean fence, crowned with charric beams that discouraged any overly enthusiastic terrorists. A steady stream of guards patrolled the outside. A patrol which four bright red eyes studied quite zealously from the shadow of the embassy buildings across the street.

"Is this it?" Raya asked irritably.

"Ma'r, we just have to get inside," Soren said, weathering her dirty look. "Trust me.”

She rolled her brilliant scarlet eyes. Trust was the last thing on her mind but she focused on the task at hand and as the final guard marched off to secure the perimeter on the other side, she slipped out of hiding.

A casual walk up to the tall pfalmean fence. A squat and then a jump. A flip over the electrified charric beams and then she disappeared through the small opening in the energy field, doubtless, sticking a perfect landing on the other side, just as the next guard turned a corner.

Soren sighed. He would never be able to do that and the guard was already coming this way.

He left the shadows and walked over unsurely to the wall, scratching his head and looked around like he didn't know where he was.

"Cheh, you!" he heard one of the warriors bark.

He turned around to find a grim faced soldier with a square jaw and dark blue skin and hair approaching.

"What are you doing here? This area is off limits to civilians," he said sternly.

"I-I'm looking for the Ornfran Embassy," Soren said with the hint of an accent. “Do you know where it is?"

The guard recognized him as a foreigner.

"You're not far off, kid," he replied. "It's three blocks that way." He pointed down a busy street and Soren turned to follow his finger. "Big silver building, can't miss it."

"Ah, chah'ir'vahs," Soren thanked him and made to walk off in that direction, hiding the holo-badge he’d lifted off the guard.

He doubled back to make the next rotation and snuck up to the entrance on the far side of the plaza. It was almost time for a shift change.

Warriors and workers came in and left plain-clothed when they weren't on duty so he easily slipped in with the incoming group as they made their way up to the gate. He swapped out the badge he’d stolen with one of the guards lining up in front of him and when it came time to check the man’s ID, confusion ensued.

“What do you mean it’s not mine?” the warrior growled, obviously a long time serviceman.

“I’m sorry, sir. This isn’t your identification,” replied the officer.

“You know who I am, Fures’ottor,” the warrior insisted. “I’ve worked here seven years.”

No one noticed a young boy slip past them as they argued about authentication and the importance of security amongst one another. Soren gratefully entered the shadow of the fence and casually walked over to the spot where Raya should have landed.

"Tsss," she hissed out of a nearby bush.

They were in the Gardens.

Behind three tall silver towers of gleaming grey serapfis was a neatly trimmed garden, coloured green and white and blue with imported plants from colonies across the Ascendancy. The ground and the air were heated here and the office workers that toiled away in the tall buildings above were given free access to the area. Many of them sat around the edge, on the benches provided, nibbling at their lunch or smoking in the wide open space.

It was incredibly rare and luxurious to experience an outdoor garden on a world like Naporar and only the Defense Force could afford to maintain anything like it. Which was also the reason a ring of busts and sculpts decorated the area, commemorating great military leaders.

"It's alright. This place is meant for rest and recreation," Soren explained. “Workers can bring guests here so just pretend you know someone who works in one of the buildings if anyone asks.”

Raya gingerly stood, throwing wary glances all around, waiting to be caught and chased but none of the Chiss in the Gardens paid them the slightest bit of attention. With the imminent threat of discovery over, she turned to Soren for their next move.

"This way," he said, following the path around the fence.

Raya fell in step, maintaining a certain distance between them as they walked.

"My father brought me here, once," Soren began. "He had some important business with Syndic Threas'utol'irnodith and there was no school that day so he took me with him and let me stay here for a while.”

"Your father knows the Syndic of the Expansionary Fleet?" Raya said with more than a hint of surprise. "I guess that explains how you got into the Program..."

Soren ignored the comment and pressed on, passing the bust of Admiral Glef'maru on their right.

"My school was right across the street from the ice-rink," he said. "I signed up on the very first day and went out with the rest of my classmates but I wasn't very good."

"Mmm, really?" Raya asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"One day, my father came to pick me up from practice," Soren continued. "He waved to me from the barrier and I waved back. I was so excited to see chah’su I didn't notice that some of the boys had fallen and piled up in front of me. And then I fell over."

He frowned.

"I was going to land head first onto one of the other boy's skates but Instructor Eulora caught me." Soren showed her the distance between his thumb and forefinger. “I was this close to losing an eye." 

"Chah’su rushed over and thanked her, of course, but he never let me skate again." 

"Smart man." Raya shot him a venomous side-glance.

"He is.” Soren nodded. “Kind too. Though a little strict." 

They crossed over a tiny serapfis bridge and made their way through the maze of greenery and flora. Three tall spacescrapers loomed up ahead and several silver sculptures lined the path, watching them pass with stern expressions carved into frosted steel. 

For who had ever seen a Chiss General smile?

They soon reached the very centre of the plaza where the garden met its end and the scent of moonflower and thent’rass oil came wafting through the air. An elegant fountain emerged before them, flanked by a marble staircase on each side. Atop the fountain was a statue of a beautiful woman in flowing golden robes. Her windswept hair was forever airborne and from her outstretched palm, clear water flowed, cascading down into the many blue-green lights below.

Soren recognized her face. Gentle and soft and kind in her grace, Eulora sat smiling shyly from her perch as she looked down upon the young Chiss.

 _"May warrior's fortune smile upon us,"_ he read the inscription on the plaque in front of them.

His eye traced the delicate line of Eulora's face and he turned to find Raya in tears once again. And he knew he was right. The nose had been changed and her lips enlarged, but it was not a big stretch to assume that the woman before them and the girl beside him could be related.

"How?" she uttered in disbelief, gazing at the statue of her mother.

"Well, I'm not really sure." Soren folded his arms and brushed a thumb against his lip. "Like I said, my father works here. They must have needed a model for the statue and after what happened, maybe..." He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Raya turned to look at him sadly.

"Thank you," she whispered, the tears rolling down her cheeks just as water droplets tumbled down her mother's golden face.

Soren gave her a great big smile, happy to have done something right for a change.

She walked up to the side of the fountain and dipped her fingers into the warm water, dabbing them gently behind her ears before replacing her glove. She looked up at her mother again and there was no mistaking the glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"We should probably get out of here," Soren muttered. "Before we get caught."

 ** _"Caught doing what?"_** rumbled a deep voice behind him.

Soren shuddered as the words rippled through his body. 

They turned around to find themselves cornered by an incredibly tall, dark man with a stout jaw and features. He was robed in navy blue, with a sheath of silver spread across his powerful chest, a cape flying wide behind him.

"Eeeeh, we were just..." Soren began.

"We just wanted to see the Gardens." Raya fell into her hurt little dove routine. The tears gave her authenticity and she began to sob, projecting guilt and innocence into her voice.

"How did you get in?" The man narrowed his eyes, staring at Soren.

"We, eeeh. Well, m-my father works in the Judicial Department. I used his pass to get us in..." he lied, cowering underneath the stranger's crimson gaze.

"I-It's my fault, sir," Raya chimed in. "I wanted to see the statue and- well-"

He gave her a cursory glance and turned back to Soren.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just wanted to show my friend the Gardens," he jibbered. "It's not fair that they're off-limits to commoners." He tried to sound authentic as the man sized him up.

"I think it's best you leave," he said sternly and Soren thought he might be crushed under the weight of his gaze.

"Ma'resh, Syndic," Raya piped up beside him, grabbing his arm and leading him away. "Thank you, sir."

Soren felt a wave of panic flooding his body as she leaned on his shoulder, pretending to be far closer to him than she really was. His heart began pounding through his ears and images of that day began to surface from his mind. The piercing screams, the pools of bloods, a piece of his skull crushed and mangled on the floor. He breathed in gasps, trying to remain centred but it did no good. The panic attack was starting.

Raya quickly ushered them through the gardens, manoeuvring through the bushes and trees, back the way they had come. She could feel him shuddering and shaking despite the strong grip she held on his arm.

"Hold on, we're almost there," she said.

"I-I can't. I..." he wheezed.

"Just a few more steps. You can do this," she assured him.

But Soren did not feel reassured.

The world blurred into darkness and all he could see were the shattered remains of his own head lying before him, a fiery red eye leaking black fluid as it lay torn open beside it. He could feel the pain again, white-hot and blinding as his broken hand reached up to touch the exposed brain tissue. And there was nothing he could do.

 _"Oren,"_ he heard his name distantly. _"Oren, stay with me."_

He tried to breathe but his body would not respond. Somehow, his legs kept moving, kept walking but the rest of him very much didn't.

 _"He doesn't feel well,"_ he heard the distant words spoken.

The shriek of an opening gate, almost as loud as his own screaming. The sound was stuck in his head, tearing at his ear drums. Impossibly loud, then gone.

He felt the pressure on his arm release and the cold Naporar wind on his face, several snowflakes drifted into his eyes, only to be melted away by the fiery red membrane. Air filled his lungs and he could hear himself breathing again. The visions of death began to fade from his sight but not from his mind and if only partially, he was still in that nightmare, waiting for the end to come.

 _"Oren,"_ he heard distant words again. _"Oren, can you hear me?"_

"Raya?" he felt his mouth move.

"Ma'r, are you alright?" she asked him.

"Chen..." he gasped, feeling his heart pounding. "I'm not."

The street blurred into focus and he found her pale blue face looking at him worriedly. The traffic and noise of the city reanimated. He breathed in the cold air, bracing and crisp. His heartbeat slowed and his mind let go and he could finally move by himself again.

He shook his head and took a few steps, trying to recover his strength but he didn't get very far before his stomach let out a low moan.

Soren frowned and looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

_Not again…_

But Raya didn't scold him this time, didn't swear or sneer as he stared at his feet. She walked a little further forward, searching for something in the distance.

"Looks like we'd better find you something to eat.”


	8. The Diner Trope

Raya sat down in the booth and slid over to the window, smiling at the waiter who'd been charmed enough to offer her the table in the far corner. She took off her gloves, one finger at a time and gazed lovingly into his smoky red eyes as he babbled on about the specials in the eatery they had chosen. _She_ had chosen.

Soren slid silently into the booth across from her and shrank down in his seat, staring blankly at the menu laid out before him. He was still shaken up. His skin had paled considerably in the time it took to walk from the fountain to the gate and the colour had not yet returned to his melancholy face.

"Chah'ir'vahs." Raya smiled at the young waiter when he finished.

There was a moment where he found himself unable to move, trapped by her beauty and paralysed by her smile but a quick shout from the kitchens broke him out of his reverie and the handsome Chiss disappeared into the back.

Raya turned to find Soren flicking through the menu options on the table's surface screen without choosing a single item. He'd taken off his cap and in the brightness of the eatery lights, Raya could finally see the toll the last two weeks had taken. His cheekbones were jutting out of his pale, gaunt face and his eyes were dark with shadowy bruises. He looked like he hadn't even seen food in months, let alone eaten any.

He sighed and leaned back against the booth, having chosen nothing and stared out the window despondently.

"You need to eat," Raya said sternly. "Order something.”

"What's the point?" he muttered despite the low rumbling in his stomach. "It's never enough."

"It has to be enough, at least for now. Look at you. You can barely walk." Raya frowned.

“Why do you care all of a sudden?" he said irritably.

"Someone has to," she sniffed, opening her own menu screen.

They sat in silence for a while and the noise of the busy eatery drifted through them.

An impatient child cried out for seconds. The fryers in the kitchens spat angrily at the overworked chef and several Chiss laughed out loud from a table nearby. The smell of home-cooked food drifted up from every plate, each dish served by the dashing waiter who sped from table to kitchen and back again.

Soren found himself glancing curiously at the food on the tables nearby and soon revisited his own menu screen to make selections.

Raya smiled inwardly, glad to see he was still going to eat something despite his dull attitude.

"Sooo, what would you like to order?" The waiter floated up to Raya and pulled out his palm sized datapad.

"Ehmmm." She looked through her shortlist. "Can I please get the flash-grilled dar'ven steak with extra torma sauce and a timp'la salad on the side?"

"Ma'resh'esu." The waiter smiled, jotting down the order as he eyed Raya over the pad.

"Anything else you'd like?” The corner of his mouth turned up slightly. “A drink, perhaps? With me? Later?"

"Mmmm." Raya licked her lips sensually. "Maybe one Peluah for now and something a little sweeter after dinner." She winked at him.

"Of course.” The waiter nodded very professionally.

"Can I get a-" Soren began but the handsome man had already left the table.

Raya’s keen eye followed him and his tight grey trousers all the way back to the kitchens, licking her lips in anticipation. He disappeared into the back and Raya turned to find Soren still poking at the menu. It took her a moment to realise that he had not participated in the conversation at all.

"Ah!” she bristled. “He forgot to take your order.”

Soren shrugged as one does when accustomed to being ignored.

"It's alright. I'll just order off the screen," he muttered, tapping at the table.

"You should have said something," Raya said irritably.

“I did.”

“Well then you need to be more assertive," she told him but he didn't look up. “You need to make your presence known.” 

He kept flicking through the menu and Raya felt herself getting angry on his behalf.

"I'm serious. Call him over right now and get him to take your order," she demanded hotly.

Soren frowned and shrank down in his seat. "Chen. It'll draw too much attention."

"You can't keep letting people walk all over you,” Raya said angrily.

"Like there's some magical way to stop them," he muttered under his breath.

"Of course, there is." Raya raised an all-knowing finger into the air. "You need charisma. Cunning. Charm. You need to be an asshole sometimes to get what you want."

"I'm not an asshole," Soren said quickly. "At least, I don't think I am..."

"If you have to ask then you already know the answer,” she said curtly.

He looked up at her for a split second, eyes betraying his heart. He tapped the order button and melted onto the table, head resting on his arms as he watched the glowing Cheunh characters spin. And Raya felt incredibly guilty all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You're not an asshole. I just-"

She was reacting the way she usually was. On the offensive, ready to stab at her opponents before they could stab at her. She didn't mean it half the time. It was just a joke.

But Soren didn't think it was very funny. He buried his head in his arms, hiding his face.

Raya reached out a hand to console him but stopped midway. It would only make the situation worse. So she bit her lip and retracted her hand. 

Perhaps if she talked to him? Showed him she was sincere?

"I mean it,” she said. “I've treated you like bre'es and you're still here, still helping me..."

“Ma'r. _Helping_ you break into a military zone. _Helping_ you blow up Shadow Base."

He sat up to lean his elbows on the table, his head heavy in his hands.

"We even managed to run into the Syndic,” he moaned. “There was a less than 6.78 percent chance of that happening. I must have the worst luck of any Chiss ever..."

"Or the best," Raya pointed out. "He let us go, didn't he?"

"Only because I looked like I was about to puke all over him…”

"You still look like that," Raya said and then winced. She was still insulting him on autopilot.

But Soren didn't seem to care anymore. He shifted away and leaned his head against the frosted window. His meagre breath bloomed on the serapfis in tiny clouds of condensation as he absently watched the world go by. Flakes of snow drifted down onto the neon sill and melted away and Raya could see him wishing he could follow.

She tried to think of something she could say to make him feel better but every word out of her mouth sounded like an attack even if she didn't mean it to be. They had so little in common, so little they shared except this one time adventure and even that would soon come to an end. There was silence between them. Silence and tension ending every conversation. Impossible to navigate without stepping on the proverbial landmine.

"What happens..." Raya asked quietly. “When I touch you... where do you go?"

Soren didn't say anything at first, didn't even blink. Raya suspected he was ignoring her again but then he looked down at his hands.

"It all goes dark..." he whispered. "I can't breathe, I can't think but I can see and hear and feel you killing me. Every bruise, every shattered bone and my head, it splits open all over again and then it grows back and I can't stop screaming and I can't stop seeing it.” He breathed in sharply.

Raya swallowed, weathering the chill running through her bones. She remembered it very differently.

It was just a free practice session in the gymnasium and he'd bumped into her by accident. He made to apologize but she didn't flinch. Her first instinct was to retaliate and she hit him with a powerful kick to the face before he could say 'I'm sorry'. She felt her blood boil and the momentum of the kick carried her into a sweep and a cross and a jab, pushing him further and further down the mat. The other cadets parted when they saw her coming and she kept up her assault without a hint of remorse.

Raya was relentless on the battlefield and not only had she caught him by surprise but his strength was in no way comparable to her own. But he wouldn't stay down. He was bleeding and broken and bruised but he wouldn't stay down and Raya remembered thinking, in the heat of the moment, that she would either make him fall or kill him. 

She picked up his body, ready to pile drive him into the mat but it slipped away at the last second and she ended up spilling his brains all over the floor. Everyone froze and Raya looked down at the mangled corpse she'd left in her wake but she didn't give an inch. She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and turned to leave, marching through the space as the other cadets watched her go.

But then she heard a noise. The crackling of bone and the peeling of flesh. An eerie moan and a wheeze as Overseers Rhonko and Huonn rushed past her. 

She turned to find them huddled around the bleeding flesh sack that was still moving, still breathing somehow. A large piece of his skull was missing and she could see the deep brain tissue. Huonn jabbed him with something in the thigh and he immediately let out a blood curdling howl.

In just a few minutes, he sat up between the Overseers, healed and whole like nothing had ever happened. And it made Raya was furious. Angry enough to smash the door behind her as she left. She needed that victory. She didn't know why and somehow she'd been cheated. 

A long cold shower numbed her up afterwards and she forgot all about it by the end of the week. It wasn't the first time she'd killed someone. And she didn't dwell on her mistakes. Or apologize. 

Unlike Soren.

"Why does it bother you so much?" She knitted her brow. "Surely, you can't remember it that well. You only had half a brain."

Soren propped his head against the window, forehead pressing into the frosted serapfis.

"My memory is eidetic," he muttered. "I remember everything, whether I want to or not.” 

He looked at his hands, too tired to fidget.

“Sometimes... I can go back to a place in my mind if the feeling is strong enough."

Raya looked at him oddly. It wasn't that uncommon but it was still hard to imagine remembering everything all the time. She could barely keep up in any of their classes with all the material they covered in the space of a day. She was probably eons behind the rest of the cadets by now but it gave her an idea.

"How strong are you feeling right now?" she asked him.

He raised a sluggish eyebrow.

"Are you making fun of me?" he groaned. "Whatever. I don't care."

"I'm serious."

Soren peeled his face off the serapfis and shrugged.

"Look at me," he said. "I'm pathetic."

"I _am_ looking at you," she said sternly.

"I see a boy to whom bad things have happened. To whom I've done bad things myself and I regret that now."

Soren turned away, unable to look her in the eye. There was no way he could believe a word out of her mouth. The only truth she’d ever given him was pain and cruelty and he wasn’t eager to accept any more.

"No, you look at me, Oren." She grabbed his face and turned it towards herself. The fiery eyes were dull and pink, wide and petrified by her touch but she held on.

"You are brave and you are strong and you don't have to be. If it wasn't for you, we would still be in that prison cell, freezing to death.” She held on tight.

“If it wasn't for you, all those creatures would have escaped and killed who knows how many people. If it wasn't for you, I would be dead in the sewer, covered in pus and if it wasn't for you, I would have never seen my mother again. You don't know how much that means to me," she said, leaning forward.

She pinned his trembling hand to the table, holding it down so he couldn’t escape.

"I want you to remember this moment," she said, watching the terror swell in his eyes. "I want you to remember me, telling you, right now, that you are _strong_."

He tried to pull his hands away but there was no use fighting her on his own. He began to breathe in short gasps and Raya could see him fading.

"No, stay with me. You are here right now, you hear me? You are in the middle of Napor City. Look out the window. There's people and snow and spacescrapers and speeders and stars. And it's home."

He wasn't breathing anymore. His cold hands were shaking. Raya gently released her grip on his face, touching his cheek.

"Look at me, Oren. You are stronger than this, you can fight it. Look around you. This place is warm, there is nobody trying to kill you. There's music playing over the people who are talking. You are here right now, waiting for dinner, you can already smell it coming."

He looked into her eyes and Raya could see a tiny spark of recognition in them again. He breathed in sharply and froze, his lip quivering as he tried to ignore the horrible stabbing pain in his heart.

"Look at me. I'm here with you, right now. I'll keep you safe," she promised, brushing his hand with a thumb. "You're safe."

He kept staring at her and the sharp breaths became more frequent but so did the tears. They poured down his cheeks and splashed onto the table, distorting the screen beneath them.

"You're fine," she said. "You're absolutely fine," she encouraged with a smile.

He sniffed, trying to quell the flood of tears but they rolled out of him anyway. He kept looking, kept his eyes open, staring into Raya's scarlet orbs and the nightmare seemed to dissipate.

"You're fine," she repeated. "Say it."

"I... I-I'm fine," he muttered.

"Again."

"I'm fine," he said shakily. "I'm fine..."

He looked down at his hands, still clasped under Raya's own.

"Fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. I'm fine..." he mumbled under a withered breath.

"Good. Now don't forget it," Raya warned him. "And don't forget me.”

Soren sobbed through a laugh.

"No," he said, trying a broken smile. “Never.”

Raya grinned back, glad he was feeling ever so slightly better. It would be a long time before he could convincingly lie about his well being but the first step was key. They were all a little broken inside but Chiss, especially men, weren't allowed to show it.

The waiter arrived at their table with two arms full of dishes and quickly spied their hands clasped over the table. His demeanour soured and he greeted them with a diminutive "Ah..."

Raya quickly retracted her hands and Soren turned away to wipe his face by the window. The waiter silently dropped off each plate and then asked, "Is there anything else I can get you?" with a much more Chiss-like expression.

"Maybe a mug of hot csimilla for my little brother?" Raya winked at him and the smile suddenly returned to his face.

"Right away.” He sped off to the bar and Soren barely had time to blink before the mug appeared on the table. 


	9. How did they get you?

The food was incredible but it could have been lyu’usen bre'es and Soren would have wolfed it down just as quickly.

Fried bean puffs and goch'lan root tartare. Ten villoseh dumplings swimming in a golden tsule'rah broth. A breaded stack of meatcakes and vegetable patties, glazed with a generous serving of liural syrup with mashed petrovi for sides. To finish, a big plate of toffeed fruits blazed in condensed sweetener, the insides transformed into a gooey mush that melted in his mouth as he cracked open the shells.

Raya watched him devour it all from across the table but despite her own hunger and best efforts, the steak she'd ordered was twice the size of her head and she couldn't bring herself to finish it. Deciding to stop before she made herself sick, she picked up the Peluah and sipped at it thoughtfully, trying to digest the first decent meal they'd had in two weeks.

Soren threw a cursory glance at her plate as he finished off the last of his own food and Raya raised an eyebrow.

"You want the rest?"

"You're not going to eat it?" he asked with genuine surprise.

"I'm done. Here." She pushed the plate towards him.

Soren timidly shuffled and stacked all the other plates to make room for Raya's unfinished steak and eagerly cut into it as she watched him finish what she started.

"Where does it all go?" she wondered aloud, examining his malnourished frame from behind her cocktail.

Soren looked up at her and stopped chewing. Dark thoughts clouded his expression and he shook his head.

"I don't know." He swallowed. “I don't gain fat, I don't gain muscle. I swear, I'm just getting smaller."

"Have you talked to the Overseers about it?" Raya wondered.

"I told Rhonko but he says it's just a phase and Lhech agrees with him. He says that I'll _'grow out of it',"_ He did a fair impression of the Overseer.

“What's your genetic readout say?” Raya asked. “It has to be decent if Rhonko picked you.”

"The numbers are good.” He nodded. “I should be a hundred and ninety two centimetres tall and weigh ninety six kilos at my peak but -”

“Aaah ta-ta-ta." Raya waved a hand. "Give me those numbers in real people measurements, please.” 

Soren sighed. “One hundred and two vilu and one hundred and two ta’res.”

“Yeah, not bad,” Raya considered, sipping her drink. "Maybe it's the serum?” she suggested. “It's never been successfully tested on Chiss, right?"

"But it's supposed to stimulate growth and healing. I should be getting stronger..."

"Well, maybe you just need to eat more? Everything needs energy to live and to grow."

"Then I'd never stop eating," he said. "And I'd be useless on missions."

"At least you wouldn't _look_ useless."

"You’d still find a reason to complain,” he said sourly. “Everyone does.”

Raya sighed. He had a point.

She was constantly poking and prodding at his imperfections. And what the Overseers told him she could only guess. The only one who still believed he was worth any effort at all was Rhonko but the man refused to share his evidence to the contrary. There was no way the boy in front of her would make it to Abacupfi. And a Csiverah Vse’ahn? Only in his dreams.

"I'll never be perfect like you," he said, reading her thought process.

Raya looked down into the bottom of her drink to find a lonely olah berry floating in the dregs of tart liquor and pelu juice. 

She wasn't perfect. She just looked that way. Her physical appearance, her persona, her abilities, everything was deliberately crafted to appear implacable to an outsider. But on the inside, she had doubts, insecurities, fears, dreams.

"Are you still going to leave?" Soren asked suddenly, forgetting his food for a moment.

Raya looked up at him through long black eyelashes, unsure and afraid, though she would never admit it.

"I don't know." She leaned into her hand.

"Where were you going, anyway?" he asked, wiping his mouth. "Don't worry, I won’t tell them." He picked up his own drink.

Raya glanced out the window. The snow was heavier now, like a rainfall but white.

"I wanted to leave the Ascendancy," she said. "I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to be free to do anything and everything and never apologize to anyone."

"Well, you definitely picked the wrong career." Soren sipped the sweet csimilla.

"I know," she said. "They lied to me, made me think I was going to be something special but we're not. Just more pawns in their endless power struggles."

They fell silent for a moment, each contemplating the fate of the galaxy and their role in it, their futures cloudy and uncertain. Raya was plagued with indecision and Soren's mind filled with doubt but then curiosity got the better of him.

"How did they... _get_ you?" he asked cryptically.

She knew what he meant. It was a story every cadet told around the table when they ate in the Mess Hall. Each trying to impress one another with their wit and strength and guile but Soren had never been a part of these discussions. He barely made an appearance at all. Constantly hospitalized or isolated, studying, healing, doing... something.

It couldn't hurt to tell him. Not much he could do with the information anyway.

"I was really good at sports," Raya began.

Soren remained silent, sipping his drink without making a glib remark like she would have done.

"I signed up for almost everything they had at school." She smiled a little. "I did athletics, gymnastics, yttras'na, copenthu, martial arts, figure-skating... "

The smile faded.

"I was the best at it." Then anger flared in her eyes. "I knew I was the best."

"I won the regional figure-skating tournament but they refused to send me to the planetary finals." She flicked at the curly straw in her glass. "They were going to send Ar'mana'lingu because she was already seven and I was still six. They said I had another year to compete in the age bracket but she didn't. All of that 'Equity as Duty' bre'eska."

"I almost let it happen. I almost let her go." Raya frowned.

"But then I heard the music she was using for her free program," she snarled. "That pes'sa had the gall to use my mother's arrangement of Vurana'csirfas. And she wanted me to watch her do it."

Soren froze with the mug in his mouth, his eyes widening with worry. He pulled it away but a line of white foam remained on his upper lip.

"Relax." Raya said. "She's not dead."

"When our coach took us to watch her perform at the planetary finals, I snuck into the changing rooms and knocked her out. I did my hair and makeup just like hers. I ripped up her outfit so it would fit me. And I went out there and I won." 

Raya smiled.

"I knew her dinky little program off by heart. I added two extra jumps in the second half and a triple flip in the first. I skated out my mother's old routine and I won." Raya grinned triumphantly. "The judges told me I was Frae'ulo'raché reborn."

“They even gave me the trophy with Mana’s name on it.”

Soren sipped at his drink, concealing a tiny smile. "I imagine she wasn't too happy when she woke up."

"No," Raya laughed. "She wasn't."

"She gave me an earful the next day. But I told her she could either admit that I won the competition or take the trophy and shut her stupid mouth."

"And she didn't want to lose face," Soren guessed.

"Yeah. She got offered a scholarship to some fancy Academy on Csilla and admitting it would tank her career before it even started."

"So Nobody knows?"

"Abacupfi sutsuru." Raya nodded. "A man showed up at our house the next day asking to speak to me. Chah'su almost didn't let him in through the front door."

"Sounds familiar." Soren nodded.

"He told me there was a place where special Chiss like me could go to become better. They would travel around the galaxy protecting the Ascendancy like heroes and I could be one of them." She sighed.

"And I bought it. I was young and stupid and I bought it and I left the next day." She shook her head.

Soren upended the mug but there was no csimilla left, only the foamy moustache still covering his lip. He licked it off as he thought about Raya's story. It wasn't hard to believe, though he suspected Mana had suffered quite a lot more than she let on.

Raya was not the type to give up a trophy without a fight and she probably smashed it right in front of the poor girl to make sure she didn't have to give it back. The rest of the tale seemed plausible. Mana probably had Pfa'rahtt with the judges or a family member on the committee that pushed her ahead of Raya in the rankings. 'Equity as Duty' unless you had the right connections…

"What about you?" Raya asked suddenly, genuinely curious to hear his story. "You said your father worked for the military?"

"Eh?" His eyes widened. "M-ma'r, he was a... retired military adviser but he kept getting called in to deal with reopened court cases so they made him a consultant," Soren explained.

"He didn't want me to go through with it though. Locked me in the house after the recruiter came."

His head drifted down and shadows spilled over his face.

"What did you do?" Raya's eyes narrowed.

"I..." he hesitated. "I broke into one of the high security labs at the university." He started picking at his thumb. 

"They had all this brand new equipment that I wanted to use..." he tried to explain himself. "So I stole my mother's keycard and used it to sneak into the lunchroom where the lab workers took breaks. I stole another keycard, sliced the holocams and hid inside a cart full of cleaning supplies to get to the right floor..." he detailed.

"But it turned out they were doing military research. That's how they got the funding to outfit the lab and it was locked down pretty tight." 

Raya leaned into her hand thoughtfully.

"I rolled a bottle of disinfectant down the corridor and managed to slip past the guards while they were distracted,” he continued. “But I didn't see the hidden security cameras they'd installed on a private feed. They must have watched me go in and come back out." He shook his head.

"I didn't realize it until a man showed up at our front door the next day."

"You were six?!" Raya asked incredulously.

"Almost." Soren looked down at his drink.

"What was so important that you had to break into a high sec military lab?" She shook her head.

Soren was reluctant to answer, she could see it on his face. He pursed his lips together and looked down in embarrassment.

"Come on,” she egged him. “What could be that bad?"

He stared into his empty mug and sighed.

"I wanted to test my parents' DNA against my own without them finding out," he said. "The lab kept their results on a private server and did everything in-house. I thought it would keep them from knowing."

Raya narrowed her eyes, reading between the lines.

"You're... adopted?" She wrinkled her nose.

He didn't look up. Shame kept his eyes firmly focused on the nail bed of his thumb which he'd picked raw.

It was incredibly uncommon to abandon children in the Ascendancy. If a parent was unable to care for their children, their family would step in and make sure they were looked after. Aunts, uncles, cousins, relatives as distant as planets would become parents to the orphan but they would never be tossed out onto the street. No matter what, the child's family would be found.

"Well... I guess it's not that bad," Raya tried to smooth it over awkwardly. "Not like your parents were criminals, right?"

Soren leaned into his hand, hiding his face.

"My biological parents must have taken one look at me and thought 'better to leave him out in the snow'," he muttered.

"I thought I could prove them wrong. I thought I could make myself better." His eyes began watering.

"But I can't," he whispered. "I can't..."

Raya reached out and grabbed his hand again. She could feel it shuddering in her grasp.

"Don't say that. You're fine, remember?" she told him. "No-one cares what a couple of vress'k'rahtu who abandoned their son think, and neither should you."

It didn't help. She could see him fading and then angered flared up in her heart.

"Fuck them! And fuck the Overseers. I can't believe we've doing this for five years," she spat, waving a hand in frustration.

"Let's get off this rock and go find something better to do with our lives." Her eyes ignited with a passion.

"But the Ascendancy-"

"-has been around for thousands of years. It will still be here when we come back."

"And the Sith Empire-"

"Fuck the Empire. And the Republic. I'm sick of their bre'es. We owe them nothing. If we weren't so afraid of losing a few civilians, we could have destroyed their fleets years ago."

"We don't have the numbers to mount a full scale assault. There's a forty eight percent chance of total annihilation if it comes to direct conflict. The chances of victory are less than one in a forty eight thousand seven hundred and one."

"A chance is all we need. You saw the Syndic today." Her eyes blazed. "How much do you want to bet he could crush a Sith's skull with his bare hands?"

Soren looked down thoughtfully, sniffing away tears.

"Well, depending on the size of the Sith and the species... If it was an average Human male he would probably need to exert a force equal to or greater than 2400 kera'nahn which given his height and muscle density... and the size of his hands... I suppose it may possible but highly unlikely that he could even get close enough to do it."

"Thank-you, Mister Logic and Pragmatism. That was very helpful." Raya smirked.

"You asked me if he could do it,” he said.

"I asked you if you wanted to bet."

"Fine! Two hundred chousen says he can't crush a Sith's skull between his bare hands."

"Ma'resh'esu mir'na." Raya held a hand over her heart.

"It's never going to happen..."

"Says you."

"I know, I just said that."

"Stop taking everything so literally! I was making a joke."

"I can never tell with you!" he fired up. "One minute, it's 'Clothes off, k'rahtu' and the next it's 'You're fine, Oren. Totally fine'," he mimicked her tone.

"Well, excuse me for having emotions and a sense of humour." She poked her bottom lip out at him. "Not all of us can bottle everything up inside and have panic attacks whenever there's conflict."

Soren breathed out his frustration and closed his eyes, searching for composure. She made him so angry so quickly, it was impossible to keep a level head. Every time he tried to speak with reason, she threw it back in his face with platitudes and irrational outbursts of superiority that he sincerely doubted she could back up. But she didn't need to. She always said exactly what she meant even if it sounded like a lie.

And then he smiled.

"I'm going to miss you..." he said, fiddling with his fingers.

He could never willingly leave the Ascendancy or disobey a direct order. He would go back to the Shadow Operative Training Program and finish it, even if it killed him. It was just who he was. Stubborn. Loyal. Perfectionist. And so unlike Raya that it actually hurt a little.

She lost her playful tone and some of that fire. 

Had she really thought this through?

Was she really just going to leave everything behind and make her way into alien territory like she was queen of the galaxy and each world should bend at her feet?

No. She would have to fight. For even a modicum of respect. For money and food and shelter and even her life. The galaxy was a dangerous place for a young girl, even one as deadly and beautiful as Raya.

And then there were the Overseers. They would never let her go without a fight. Huonn had spent too much of her budget on perfecting Raya's body, on enhancing her strength. There was no way she would let her escape, even if she had to call in the entire Expansionary Fleet to find her and bring her home.

And the first person they would blame for her desertion was…

"I'm not going anywhere," she said suddenly.

Soren looked up at her, confused.

"I thought-"

"Someone has to get you back to Base," she said matter-of-factly. "You're hopeless on your own." Her nose rose proudly into the air as she said it.

"I'm not an invalid."

"You could have fooled me," she smirked, sliding off the edge of the booth.

"Where are you going?"

Raya gave him a sly little smile as she pulled off the ribbon tying up her hair. It tumbled down her shoulders and she shook it out into long, wild curls. A naturally beautiful disorder.

"I have a bill to settle." She winked and wandered off towards the handsome young waiter who eagerly followed her beckoning finger.

Soren briefly watched them walking towards the refresher and sighed.

This was going to take a while…


	10. Making Contact

A beautiful young woman stood outside a frosted bubble of glass, idly waiting to use the public com terminal inside. She folded her arms and rocked on her feet, back and forth, trying to stay warm despite the snow and wind. Her accomplice had insisted on making himself useful and she was a much better lookout in the adverse weather. His acute hearing wouldn't help them with so much background noise from the cityscape but Raya's scarlet eyes cut through the night like brilliant flames.

It was snowing pretty heavily outside the booth and the temperature dropped several degrees as night blanketed the city. And the wind didn't make it any easier to stay alert for enemies or curious pedestrians who might wonder what Soren was doing with the com terminal.

She wasn't even sure Shadow Base would respond. The facility was locked down with the imminent threat of creatures loose in the prison area and it made sense to evacuate everyone for safety reasons. Two cadets were deemed expendable and left down there to die but that didn't mean the Expansionary Defense Force was ready to flush a billion chousen initiative down the refresher.

Some small part of her actually hoped the explosion of the generator had caused the prison to cave in on itself and take the complex with it, killing all the other cadets and Overseers and personnel but she knew they were too smart for that. There would be a backup base, and a backup plan and another and another and probably another after that. Chiss were risk-takers but they weren't stupid. Every potential scenario was accounted for before any decision was reached which also made Raya absolutely furious.

She couldn't do anything without first providing sufficient evidence to back up her claims. First to her Overseer, then the other Overseers and in some cases, an Expansionary Defense Force official, before anyone would even let her near a mission. But Raya did so much on instinct that it was practically impossible for her to write down a thorough mission plan and she kicked angrily at the snow as she thought about it.

Maybe she should just make a run for it now? 

Soren was distracted. He would receive instructions on how to get to the new Shadow Base soon and they'd send someone to come pick him up. He would be safe. And she could leave…

But she didn't get a chance because he stuck his head out of the bubble and gestured for her to come inside. Granted, it was much warmer but it was also very cramped and she worried what the close proximity would do to him.

"What is it?" she said, brushing the snow from her hair.

"I just received a message." He pointed at the characters on the screen.

Raya read through the silver spiral and frowned. Then she read through it again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She smirked.

"The protocol for a level 5 lockdown is to encode all messages with a sholae cipher and run it through an encryption program," he explained.

"But this is a public com terminal. We don't have the decryption program to decode the message." Raya frowned.

"I've been trying to work around it but there's just too many variations. We could be here forever and never get any closer to it."

"So we're stuck?" She looked up from the terminal.

"Maybe not." Soren folded his arms and brushed a thumb against his lip.

"I had an idea. I know the _encryption_ algorithm. So if I use the sholae cipher to encode our own message and then use the terminal to encrypt it with the algorithm, we could mark it as a priority one distress call and the system would recognise it as legitimate."

"So we send a priority one order on an open military frequency to pick us up? That could put the entire Defense Force on alert."

"No, we operate on a separate frequency." He pointed to the number on the screen. "Only the Shadow Operative Training Facilities would see the message."

"Well then why haven't you sent it?"

"I thought we should discuss it first."

"What's there to discuss? You want us to get picked up. Name a time and a place and they'll be there."

"We can't ask them to airlift us out of the city, it'll draw too much attention."

"You want to leave?" Raya hissed. "It's midnight and it's already way below freezing. We leave the city now and we might as well curl up on the street and die."

"We could steal a speeder and some supplies. Ride out beyond the outskirts and wait for them to pick us up somewhere remote. It's the best I can think of."

"It's not good enough." Raya shook her head.

"Mmm." He brushed his lip thoughtfully.

"The snowfall is heading south," she said, looking up at the white drift that topped the serapfis bubble. "The wind is pushing in a westerly direction. We could try somewhere north-east. A cave or... something."

Soren perked up and his ears wiggled as an idea came to him, his matted hair falling in behind.

"Lake Csiulast," he said, brightening. "It's inside a basin which protects it from the wind on all sides, perfect for a covert landing spot. There’s a bay on the far east side that’s completely sheltered."

"And there are plenty of pensions in the town nearby. If we could make it through the super highway-"

"It'll take us right out by the lakeside. There's a turn-off on the-"

"Relah'fos Overpass. Ma'r. That would work." Raya nodded. "Do you know the coordinates?"

"Mmm. Should I send the message?" he asked.

"Ma'resh'eshu, what are you waiting for?" She nudged him forward and Soren flinched.

"Ah... sorry."

"No, no, I- I'm fine," he swallowed, raking his fingers over the keypad and trying to breathe evenly. "I'm fine..."

"I haven't been to Lake Csiulast in forever." She leaned against the side of the bubble, trying to maximize the distance between them. "It was always so packed during summer."

"Mmm, the traffic jam started halfway through the city.”

"And the Defense Force would hand out rations to every speeder..." Raya reminisced.

"My father started a drinking circle one time," Soren smiled. "Someone broke down on the overpass and traffic was completely halted so he went around to every driver and they pooled alcohol and engineering expertise until they had enough to fix the broken speeder. He almost went blind by the end of that weekend."

"Haha, light-weight." Raya laughed. "I wonder how much we could drink without getting alcohol poisoning?" she wondered out loud.

"A Flugellian spice dealer once forced three bottles of bootleg storonji liquor down my throat,” Soren remembered. “Still not sure how I managed to walk away from that torture session."

“What happened?”

“He was so impressed he let me go.”

"No fair. Healing serums don't count." She kicked at the booth absently.

"And performance enhancing stims do?"

"Tchh, we all get those." She waved it away. "Mmm, I hadn’t thought about your healing ability... We should start a drinking game in the Mess Hall when we get back. I'm going to make so much money." She smiled greedily.

Soren sighed. "Great..." 

He pressed a few more keys and tapped at the screen, returning the com terminal to its original function.

"That's it. They should get the message soon. We have exactly 46 hours to rendezvous at Lake Csiulast."

"Two days?" Raya noted.

"Well, if the traffic's as bad as usual..."

"Tell me you're not planning to walk the highway if it is," she moaned.

Soren shrugged. "We should find a speeder..."

"Alright, but I get to choose." She flicked her hair over her shoulder and pulled up the fur-lined hood of her jacket. The door to the com station shuddered as Raya gave it a gentle push and Soren waited for her to leave before making his way out into the snow.

The wind had died down a little but it still managed to sweep its fair share of snowflakes into their eyes. Soren squinted as they melted on the fiery red film, harmlessly trickling down his face as he searched the street for an unmanned vehicle.

"Over there!" Raya pointed excitedly down the way. She could see far better than he could and it took a few steps before he recognized the shape of the Aberanu-480 Snowcat parked by a chic new apartment building.

Raya skipped over to it and threw a leg over the speeder, smiling wickedly as she grabbed the handlebars. 

Of course, she had chosen the most expensive top-of-the-line luxury sports model of the Aberanu line. It was sleek and smooth, its surface liquid black and viscous. Two aerodynamic prongs split the front and one long rear spoiler tailed the back. A thin white line teased at its curves and Soren spotted the engine under the long seat, rear-drift capable and completely outside his skill set.

"I don't know how to hotwire those," he said.

"What?!" Raya blustered. "I thought you were supposed to be good at this sort of thing."

"I do numbers and probability, not speeders and engines. I only know the basics they taught us, just like you.”

"But it’s all automated,” she argued. “It can't be that different from slicing a regular speeder, can it?"

Soren flicked up the front panel and examined the electronics that controlled the ignition and locking mechanism. It was like looking at a bowl of noodles with several light-bugs trapped inside.

"Nnnn..." he worried.

"Come on, you can do it." Raya bustled on top of the speeder.

"Can't we just find a simpler model? I know how to get a Jan'aes 330 going without much trouble," he said hopefully.

"Tchh, it would take us a week to get to the Lake on a Jan’aes," Raya scoffed.

"I want this one, it looks so fast," she smiled. "Just give it a try. If you can't do it, I promise we'll find another."

Soren looked down at the panel apprehensively. It wasn't that he couldn't get it started. Slicing computers wasn't a problem but there were several security features he didn't recognize and any one of his mistakes could trigger an alarm that would wake the entire neighbourhood. 

"I miss Arko..." he murmured, downloading the repair manual to the datapad Raya had stolen from the waiter. 

"The big grey guy you used to hang out with?" She leaned back against the long seat of the Snowcat, practically lying down as the snow drifted into her eyes.

"Mmm," Soren mumbled, connecting the datapad to the speeder manufacturer's outlet.

"Feugh, he’s always covered in grease and gunk. Is he from Copero?"

"Ma'r, built an energy compression coil when he was four. Total genius."

"Genius?" Raya smirked. "Wasn't he the one that failed all of his exams first year? He must have said all of two words to me last time we were assigned to the same mission."

"Mmm, he was never very good at studying," Soren agreed. "But that doesn't mean he's not smart. He just finds it hard to write things down or say things the way he means to."

"And you had absolutely nothing to do with his grades miraculously improving in the second term?" Raya asked as she shot a look up and down the deserted courtyard. They were hiding out in one of the residential neighbourhoods.

"Maybe a little." Soren shrugged, analysing the Aberanu Corp. security system.

"A little?" 

"What do you want me to say? That I sliced into the records and changed his grades? I'm not going to help you cheat your way through the Program, if that's what you're thinking."

Raya rolled her eyes and pouted her big lips in the other direction. He'd seen through her ploy again. There was no way she could catch up on all the work they'd missed since being locked up and Huonn was going to tear her to shreds if she failed to bring herself up to speed.

Raya wasn't stupid, she just needed time. More time than they were ever given to absorb information. Mathematics, logic, linguistics, physics, astronomy, engineering, chemistry, biology, political science, galactic history, a new planetary culture and geographic profile to memorise each week... 

It was no wonder that Arko couldn't keep up in the beginning, Raya had barely been able to do so herself.

"You wouldn't understand," she said. "It's not like you need to study or anything..."

"What?" Soren looked up from his datapad.

"You remember everything, you said. You don't need to revise or memorize or learn..." she ventured.

"I still need to understand." Soren frowned at her. "Reading something doesn't automatically make you smarter."

"Ma'r, but remembering it off by heart sure helps." Raya folded her arms.

"About as much as Wookie blood helps you reach tall shelves," he said, returning to the electronic maze.

"Tchh." Raya threw her arms up at the sky, catching snowflakes. "All the Wookie blood in the galaxy isn't going to help me understand brane cosmology or hyperspace gravity fluctuations..."

"What don't you understand about them?" Soren asked tentatively while removing a cable from the ignition actuator and breathed out a sigh of relief when it didn't raise an alarm.

"Eurgh, none of it," Raya groaned. "All the formulas in the databooks look like they're written in alienese. And I can read sixteen alien languages! How am I supposed to calculate the wavelength of a ship travelling through hyperspace when I don't understand where all the numbers come from?"

"You mean calculate the complex wave function to describe the state of the system?" he asked, bypassing the navitracker. "That won't give you an accurate position for the ship but you should be able to calculate the probability of your ship being in a certain place at a certain time..." He started fiddling with the actuator.

"You mean it's not even accurate? Then what's the point?" She let out an exasperated sigh.

"You can't make simultaneous predictions of conjugate variables but an approximation is better than no figure at all. That's where probability theory and the law of normalizing averages make it possible to predict a range of speed and potential locations in hyperspace."

"So we're just guessing better? There's no way to know for sure?"

"No. When the hyperdrive is activated, special particles are attached to the ship's frame, giving it several extra dimensions which allow it to exist within the bulk of hyperspace for a short time.” He reconnected the ignition switch. 

“We enter another brane of existence where the quantum gravity is vastly different from our own. All we can do is measure the probability of our existence as we travel through the bulk. This gives us an approximate range of our speed and location so we can provide a buffer to the ship's scanners when we leave hyperspace."

"That seems like a lot of guesswork for something so dangerous." Raya frowned.

“Nothing can ever be a hundred percent accounted for. No risk can ever be completely mitigated. But what we do know is enough to propel our ships across the stars.” 

Raya noted the twinkle in his eye and the curve of his mouth.

“Heh.” She sat up. “I’d never have pegged you as a romantic.”

Soren frowned and glanced up at her briefly.

“I’m just being realistic.” He returned to his datapad. 

“You’re a romantic.” Raya smiled a cunning smile, leaning over the handlebars.

“I am not.”

“Are too.”

_“Am not.”_

_“Are too.”_

Soren’s lips puffed up into an irritable pout.

“We live on a planet in the middle of its Ice Age. The Rata Nebula and its magnetic storms are constantly threatening to shift polarity in more than sixty Ascendant star systems. Our galaxy travels at 808,008 kilometres per hour around the center of the universe. And yet, we are still alive.” He shook his head, hand stuck in the speeder. “The probability of our existence is so infinitesimally small that we must inevitably conclude, however unlikely an event may be, nothing will ever be as unlikely as life itself.”

 _“Romantic...”_ Raya grinned.

Soren frowned and stuck his nose out from under the hood.

“It’s science,” he said coldly.

“Fine.” Raya's eyes flickered into a roll.

“Tell me, Mr Science. If we only have an approximate range of existence in hyperspace, then what about microjumps?”

"What about them?" Soren asked testily.

"If it's all just estimation, how is it possible to perform such accurate jumps at small distances?"

"Possible does not mean probable." He frowned. "By minimizing the buffer to the potential range of existence within hyperspace you could get a more precise calculation but disregarding outliers could endanger your figure of being entirely wrong.” He flipped a switch and connected two cables.

“Microjumps have an incredibly low success rate for a reason. Those that do make them happen are usually operating in relatively empty space."

"They say the Syndic can make microjumps in battle. It's how he won the Battle of Hoth," Raya pointed out.

"I doubt it." Soren shook his head. "There would have been a hundred ships surrounding the N'ruva'nahn. There's no way he could avoid a collision..."

"Are you saying he lied?" Raya narrowed her eyes.

"The media can never offer an unbiased account of events and the military would never release classified information to the public. They probably made it up to make the news sound more exciting."

“Mmmm, I guess I was wrong.” Raya sighed. "You really know how to suck the fun out of life, don't you?"

Soren scrunched up his mouth and said nothing. 

She was the one who kept asking him questions. Were they meant to be rhetorical? Was he not supposed to answer? Is that how conversations worked? Was he supposed to feign ignorance to accommodate people? Empathize with their stupidity?

His anger made him lose focus and he accidentally flipped the wrong switch on the control panel, triggering an outrageously loud klaxon from inside the speeder.

"Ktah!" Raya swore as she bolted upright.

Somewhere high above, an angry Chiss man poked his head out the window and started yelling at them. The sound woke a dozen other tenants in the building and several more in the spacescraper across the street.

Soren froze up, eyes wide as he realized what he'd done. He flicked the switch back but the alarm would not relent. He tried deactivating it remotely through the datapad but it wouldn't work.

"What are you doing?!" Raya shouted. "Turn it off!"

"I'm trying!" he yelled back. "It won't work!"

"Just get the engine running!" she urged.

Soren quickly turned on the ignition, triggering a secondary klaxon which blared even louder than the first, deafening his already strained ears. He cupped his hands either side of his head as more and more Chiss appeared at their windows to see what was causing the racket. Soon, someone would come to detain the thieves and their civilian cover would be blown.

But Raya wasn't worried. 

She smashed her foot into the side of the speeder and crumpled the device that was emitting the offending sound, silencing the alarms and revealing the tumult of angry Chiss voices from above. With the noise gone, Soren heard the hum of the speeder's engine and the short revs as Raya twisted the handlebars.

"Get on!" she yelled.

"No... I-I can't..." Soren shook his head.

"You'll be fine. Remember?"

Then the door to the swanky apartment building slid open and a disgruntled Chiss in his underwear and a long fur coat appeared in the doorway.

"That's my speeder! THIEVES!" he yelled, jogging over to apprehend them but Soren didn't wait for him to get close.

He hopped onto the back of the vehicle and wrapped his arms around Raya's waist, feeling the breathless panic growing in his chest as she kicked up the stand. She jerked the throttle and the Snowcat hurtled forward, pushing them back into the seat as they darted out of the courtyard and into the street to the complaint of the angry Chiss nearby.

Raya quickly found the windshield control and spun the dial into the snowstorm settings. A cool blue energy field enveloped the speeder, creating a warm aerodynamic bubble that melted the incoming snow and muffled the world around them. Once her sight was unimpaired, she quickly accelerated onto a helical hover-ramp that took them up into the city's floating highways and disappeared into the dark sky.


	11. Fast Travel

It was late, even for Napor City but the roads were still full of speeders and cruisers trying to make their way through the maze of spacescrapers as they rose high into the air. Two young Chiss on a single man speeder dodged and swerved around vehicles, nipping through tiny gaps only the Snowcat could fit through, racing ahead of the traffic.

Raya whooped and cheered as the speeder entered a serapfis tunnel, accelerating even faster without wind resistance to pull it back. The expressway spiralled out of the city, steadily rising and providing uninterrupted views of the icy metropolis through the frosted glass walls.

"Oren, look!" she smiled, pointing at the Napor cityscape but he didn't answer. She could feel his arms tightening around her waist, trembling as he desperately tried to hold on.

He'd scrunched his eyes shut and grit his teeth. She could hear the laboured breathing as she swerved around the bend. He couldn't let go but he couldn't hang on forever and if he lost consciousness on the freeway and fell off the speeder, there wouldn't be enough healing serum in the Ascendancy to save him.

Raya revved up the Snowcat and flew expertly through the complicated bends of the tunnel at twice the speed limit. She took the left exit and merged onto the interconnecting corridor that led to the super highway and stretched over the most beautiful view of Napor City yet.

"Ey, open your eyes." She nudged him with a shoulder. She couldn't take her eyes off the road at that speed but she wanted him to see it. Yet he didn't respond, stubbornly clutching at her waist with all his strength.

Raya darted in front of two semi-freighters just as they closed the gap between each other and came up right against the tunnel wall. She could hear Soren muttering softly into her back but she knew he was anything but fine.

"Mirai, k'rahtu!" she swore and kicked him in the shin, immediately regretting her decision. Her impatience had gotten the better of her and for a moment, she thought he might let go but instead, he hissed out in pain and squeezed harder.

"Tsss, stop hitting me," he grumbled over her shoulder but it had the effect she desired.

Soren opened his eyes to see what Raya had been trying to show him. The frosted serapfis walls opened up onto a panoramic view of Napor City and the glacier behind it. Millions of glittering, glowing lights reflected a hundred fold on the tall icy shelf like an artificial aurora. He could see the steely grey buildings from the military district towering in the east and silvery helixes of department stores and businesses in the west as parallel lines of streets divided them.

It was beautiful. And it was home.

Raya allowed herself a quick glance to her left and appreciated the view. She could see their reflections in the serapfis and the tiny smile on Soren's face. She grew one of her own for two tenths of a second before almost drifting into the semi-freighter on her right. But she caught the Snowcat in time and sped up again, dipping in front of her neighbouring vehicles and across several lanes to take the exit to the super highway.

They came out on the right side of the tunnel and Soren could see the other half of Napor City. Grey and solid, identical spacescrapers full of residential apartments that stretched out as far as the eye could see. They disappeared out into the horizon and the darkness of the night sky as though the city was built on the edge of space itself.

The Snowcat drifted onto the super highway, its walls made of pfalmean, black and shining. Napor disappeared behind it and Soren could suddenly see the speeders and their passengers reflected in its pearly sheen. He found his own terrified face staring back at him as he realized he was still holding on to Raya. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes again.

"I'm fine..." he whispered to himself but his breathing was still laboured. 

“We have another hour before we get to the Overpass," she said, feeling him fidget. "You going to be alright?"

"Mnnngh..." he moaned, trying to breathe evenly.

His vision was fading but he wasn't seeing the training room or his hands or his skull. He could hear Raya's voice but he couldn't make out the words. And there was a smell coming through. Something sweet and flowery. 

His mind drifted to the image of the fountain from the military plaza. The clear blue water that ran beneath the golden statue. The smell of moonflower and thent'rass oil. And Raya. He could smell the droplets she'd dabbed behind her ears and pressed his head against her, breathing in to tether himself to reality. But his heart was still beating too fast.

"There's a rest stop coming up in a few visvia," Raya said as they passed a sign. "We can take a break?" she suggested.

"No," Soren pushed through the nausea. "I disabled the tracking system but they'll be looking for the speeder. If we leave the tunnel… if anyone sees us..."

"We'll get arrested by the Colonial Phalanx." Raya shrugged. "We'll give them some false names, break out of the jail cell and steal another speeder." She grinned. "Been there, done that."

"Just keep going." Soren shook his head. "We don't need the attention."

"I'm pretty sure I just ran through sixty traffic signals," she said, swerving around a particularly slow passenger vehicle. "And we're doing twice the speed we should be doing."

"Then we're going too fast for them to get a clear picture of the driver."

"Are you saying I should go faster?"

"No, I'm saying you shouldn't slow down."

Raya interpreted it how she wanted and twisted the handlebars, accelerating even further and launching them into an unimaginable velocity that gave Soren a completely different form of nausea. 

They rocketed through the tunnel with the power only an Aberanu speeder could offer. The engine roared and echoed in the ears of every Chiss travelling outbound from Napor City but not one of them could make out the bluish black blur that sped in and out of view within the space of a second. They made it to the Relah'fos Overpass in thirty minutes and turned off onto a comparatively empty road.

"Weird," Raya noted, zipping through the many lanes with ease. "There's no one here."

They passed two, maybe three vehicles where there were hundreds only moments ago and Soren stirred at her back.

"Where is everyone?" he mumbled dizzily. "It's the end of summer, isn't it?"

"Maybe there was a weather warning and everyone stayed home?"

"A Chiss stay home when they have a vacation all planned out?"

"Mmmm, you're right," Raya frowned, speeding up with the advent of less traffic.

"We should have checked the extranet before we left," Soren cursed himself for being so careless. "There could be roadwork or..."

"Then they'd close the Overpass altogether." Raya scanned the road ahead but there was no indication of closures or detours. "Looks like a clear path to Csiulast'ores."

"We need to ditch the speeder once we get close," he murmured into her back.

"You mean I should total it so it looks like we died in a fiery explosion?" Raya grinned, her eyes burning like wildfire.

"As long as we're not still on it..." he managed to say before she accelerated again, taking advantage of the empty straight.

Raya loved to fly. 

Simulations were all well and good but nothing compared to the momentous feeling of racing through life at speeds few could withstand, let alone navigate. She loved the thrill of knowing any second, any mistake could be her last, the adrenaline that rushed through her veins as she rode. It was too bad Huonn wanted to remove the sensation.

Adrenaline was an incredibly inefficient use of the body's resources and often removed an operative's ability to think critically in a dangerous situation, focusing on survival rather than mission objectives. And Raya herself demonstrated exactly the kind of instinctual impulsiveness that most Chiss detested. 

She didn't plan ahead. She didn't think things through. There was only that feeling, that need to act in the spur of the moment that somehow carried her through life and she listened to it far more than she should have.

Soren on the other hand was glad she was the one driving. His reaction time was nowhere near as fast and he could barely keep himself conscious as the nausea rolled over him. He thanked his super quick metabolism for digesting his food before he got onto the rollercoaster ride Raya had created and clamped his jaw shut, holding on as best he could.

They made remarkable time on the Overpass and less than twenty minutes later, indicators for the turnoff to Csiulast'ores began appearing.

"We're almost there," Raya smiled as they passed the fifteen visvia marker. "Get ready to jump!"

"What?!"

"We need to lose the speeder," she replied, "you said so yourself."

"Not like that!" Soren shifted in his seat. "We can't jump at this speed!"

"I'll slow down," Raya assured him. "It'll be tight but we can make it."

"Nnnngh," he moaned as she hit the brake and the Snowcat skidded sideways.

They slid onto the turnoff and rammed into the barrier on the side of the road. The blue energy field surrounding them took the brunt of the impact and sliced through the pfalmir barrier as they crashed through and fell.

It was more than a hundred visu drop but they had so much forward velocity that the Snowcat was going to propel them straight into the side of the icy cliff opposite. 

Raya didn't wait for it to happen. She let go of the handlebars and hopped up onto the speeder's seat, dragging Soren with her by the arm.

"Now!" she yelled.

And they jumped. Pushing off the Snowcat to fly through the air, icy wind lending them speed as they went. Raya felt herself falling faster than she was jumping forward and used her remaining strength to fling Soren up onto the cliff.

He landed on the snowy bank and rolled away from the edge. Raya caught the ledge with her hands and quickly pulled herself up before the speeder crashed into the cliff below. It drove deep into the ice, cracking it in several places and roaring fiercely before the generator got jammed and exploded into a hundred tiny pieces, shattering the icy rock. 

Raya felt the ground beneath her quaking and crumbling and sprinted forward but the ice was already giving way. She dove, reaching out for the newly formed ledge but missed by only a few vilia. Her other hand came down, grabbing desperately at the air but caught Soren's hand instead. 

She looked up to find him straining against her weight but refusing to let go. She gripped tight as he pulled her up and soon she was close enough to crawl onto the plateau. They rolled away from the edge, leaving trails in the snow and covering their clothes in coats of powdery white flakes. 

Raya laughed as she rubbed a snow angel into the ground and rolled over. But Soren wasn't nearly as excited. He was panting and clutching at his chest nearby, trying to keep his heart contained.

"T-that was..." he gasped, _"so_ unnecessary." He wheezed as Raya stood up.

She stared down at him and grinned slyly.

"But it was fun," she said, her scarlet eyes bright against the snowy night.

"I... I suppose," he considered, rolling onto one side.

She offered him a hand but he didn't take it, rising slowly and painfully on his own to stand beside her.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around at the endless snow drifts and shivering.

"Not far from Csiulast'ores," Raya said confidently. "We just need to walk up that hill over there."

"You think anyone heard the speeder crash?" Soren asked thoughtfully.

"Chen." Raya shook her head. "The town's pretty isolated inside the basin. I doubt they'd hear much more than a thump."

"Too bad about the Snowcat," he frowned, glancing over the edge.

"Mmm, come on," she said, on the move again.

She carved a path through the snow and Soren followed, hugging his arms for warmth against the wind and cold. It howled all around them, kicking up the white powder and pummeling them from behind. 

Raya soon found herself soaking wet from scooping snow with her hands and trudging through drifts with her thin boots. The going got tougher as they made their way up the slope but she grit her teeth and kept pushing. 

Endurance and strength exercises were always the easiest for her to tackle. Simple and achievable goals that required no forethought or deliberation. Just perseverance.

She led them up the slope and stopped at the very crest to catch her breath as it billowed in white clouds against the cold night air. It was so far below freezing that the snowflakes melting on her burning eyes immediately froze again as they trickled down her face. 

Soren trudged up beside her, soaking wet and wiped his nose, cracking the icicles that had formed under it.

"W-we n-need to f-find shelter," he chattered through his teeth and Raya nodded.

She looked out at the frozen lake that extended into the horizon, the basin cupping it on the other side like the world's largest ice-rink and sighed. What she wouldn't give to glide across that perfectly flat surface once again, knowing that her mother was there, waiting by the shore. But it was useless to dream. Particularly now. They were getting picked up from the Lake in forty three hours. They needed to spend the next forty somewhere warm or they'd freeze to death.

She trudged down the slope, into the snow once again and Soren fell in behind. He was desperately tired and had to fight incredibly hard against the urge to curl up on the ground and sleep.

It was the cold.

So very cold. He could feel it piercing his skin from the outside while a much more insidious frost radiated from within.

Hunger.

Painful and distracting. Numbing his fingers and freezing his bones. Not even a hundred blankets could warm him up when the hunger took him.

Cold. Cold from the inside. And then heat.

It was suddenly blazing hot and he could feel himself sweating. He stopped in his tracks, letting Raya trudge forward alone as he pulled off his hat and his gloves. It was uncomfortably warm and he picked at the clasp to his jacket but his unruly fingers couldn't open it.

Raya turned around to find him stripping in the snow and panicked.

"Stop!" she yelled at him but he continued to fidget. She ran back and scooped up the hat he'd discarded and smacked it back onto his head. "You're freezing, stop it!"

"It's so hot..." he muttered.

"No, it's not! Look around! It's all ice and snow, you can't take your clothes off!" she shouted but he wasn't listening. His fingers kept fidgeting with the clasp on his jacket and Raya had to forcefully pry them apart so he couldn't open it.

He wasn't shuddering anymore and he didn't jerk away from her touch. He melted out of consciousness and sank into her arms as she cursed out loud. He was too weak to weather the cold as she did.

Raya bundled him up and hugged him tight as she set off again down the path towards Csiulast'ores. Her scarlet eyes burned through the white night as she searched for shelter but there were no dwellings or caves out here in the outskirts of the basin.

She was getting tired too. And now she had to carry Soren as she laboured through the snow. 

_Maybe crashing the speeder wasn't such a great idea after all…_

The wind howled all around, beating her back and forward and slicing at her face with frost.

She kept walking. One foot in front of the other. A left, then a right. Another left. A left. And…

She felt herself lose concentration and quickly shook the tiredness out of her head. They needed to get somewhere warm. They needed to…

Her vision became blurry and she missed a step. Her strength was fading and with her sure footing lost, she fell.

She tried to hold on to Soren as they rolled down the side of the hill. She tried to keep them steady and horizontal but her arms were no longer following her command. She hit an outcrop of rock, hidden by snow, and her arms sprang open, letting go of the boy who disappeared in the dark and the white. 

Raya fell all the way down to the entrance of the basin and hit the ice hard. With weary, bruising limbs, she tried to stand but the most she could manage was to prop herself up on her elbows and look out at the frozen lake in the distance.

"Oren!" she shouted through the blistering wind. "Oren, where are you?!" she yelled but he was still unconscious, lost in the endless snow.

"...ktah..." she muttered weakly as the cold set in.

Her vision became blurry again and she squinted to see better in the perpetually white landscape. Four burning red eyes pierced through the night and Raya thought she was seeing double. She shook her head but it didn't change. The fiery red eyes grew larger as they approached.

"Oren?" she muttered, reaching for him with a hand as her body finally succumbed to the cold.

And then everything was dark.


	12. Not Yet

Raya stirred to the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of smoking fish. It was warm and cozy under the many blankets and her soaking wet clothes were gone. She sighed awake and opened her eyes to find herself nestled by the fireplace of someone's home. It was a large house, as only a dwelling outside the city could be, warmed by the central heating all Chiss buildings employed. Pleasantly liveable compared to the unforgiving climate outside.

Raya rubbed her eyes and let one of the blankets go, stretching her arms and legs as they thawed by the fire.

"You're awake," a deep voice to her right noted. "It is good."

She turned to find a stern Naporari man of sixty odd years staring back at her. Plain clothes and warm shoes let him blend effortlessly into the fisherman's home he'd constructed. His wife bustled into the room with a cup of some piping hot drink and smiled when she saw Raya.

"You are a lucky one," she said, moving closer to offer her the mug. "I didn't think anyone could survive the cold in city clothes."

Raya sat up and took the mug she offered. The smell of hot wine and spices drifted up her nose as she gratefully sipped the warm beverage.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

The two of them looked back at her curiously, then at each other and frowned. Raya connected the dots and jumped to her feet.

"There was a boy with me," she said. "Did you find him?"

The fisherman's wife frowned and shuffled away towards the kitchen. The man looked at her sternly.

"He didn't make it," he said, eyes narrowing.

Raya walked over to him and slammed the mug on the table.

 _"Where is he?"_ she growled, scarlet eyes flaming.

"Outside." The man nodded. "No use thawing a corpse..."

She hissed and dropped the blankets she'd been wrapped in. A quick look around and she found the stairs leading up to the surface, sealed off by a hermetic bulkhead. With three quick strides, she leapt up and wrenched it open, letting wind and snow fill the fisherman’s home. 

Naked and angry, she dashed into the cold.

"Oren!" she yelled into the wind. Her soft blue skin paled ten shades as she tackled the snow in her underwear.

She glared through the icy wind, searching for Soren's body and then four fiery red eyes lit up through the darkness.

The fierce Chiss darted towards them without hesitation and quickly trampled into a small hut on top of the fisherman's homestead. But it wasn't just Soren's body she found. Atop his corpse sat a huge white snow fox, curled up in a ball of bristling fur and staring at her with four glittering red eyes. Raya froze and felt two arms encircle her waist.

"He's gone! You need to get back inside," the fisherman growled.

"I'm not leaving without him!" Raya kicked out and broke free of his grasp.

She ran up to the snow fox, ready to tackle it but the creature instantly moved aside, revealing the lifeless form of the boy it had been protecting.

Raya didn't question it. She picked up Soren and ran back through the snow, past the confused fisherman and inside the house. She set him down by the fire where she had awoken and began peeling the ice from his clothes. The snow fox quickly followed her inside before the fisherman could stop it and settled in a ball beside Soren once again.

"Hahnu! Chush!" the fisherman shooed it away but the creature didn't move.

"Irei!" he commanded but the fox refused to listen. It opened one of its almond-shaped eyes and watched as he bolted the door shut.

"Tch, stubborn animal..." The fisherman shook his head, eyeing Raya simultaneously.

"He's no heartbeat, girl. Nor breath. You should have let the cold preserve him until your parents came.” He shook his head.

"No, he'll be fine," Raya said. "Do you have a med-kit?"

"Mmm," the fisherman grumbled and wandered off to find it.

Raya pulled off Soren's shoes, cracking the ice on his pants. His feet were frozen solid and several toes were missing, probably still inside the boots in her hand. The snow fox had kept his head and his chest warm but his arms and legs had suffered the brunt of the frost.

She carefully pulled off his pants and cracked the sleeves of his jacket. He was missing several fingers but otherwise the damage had been minimal. He looked as if he was simply asleep. The fox and the fire thawed his freezing limbs and Raya peeled off the rest of his clothes, wrapping him in the blankets she had been wearing moments ago.

The fisherman returned with a small silver briefcase, a heart of fire embossed on the cover and Raya snatched the med-kit from him as soon as she saw it. She searched through the contents like a woman possessed and pulled out a defibrillator not a moment too soon. The thin silver rod fit snuggly into the palm her hand and she turned to look at the fox before using it.

"I'm going to need you to move," she told it.

The four glittering red eyes stared at her for a moment, then two eyes flickered towards the fisherman standing behind Raya.

"Hahnu, vulai.” He pointed to the heel of his boot and the snow fox unravelled its fluffy white ball of fur to pad away obediently.

Raya quickly got to work. She peeled off the wet blanket which had melted the ice on Soren's body to reveal his pale blue chest. She wiped it down and rubbed a clear gel over his heart, readying the corpse for defibrillation.

"You might want to hold on to that thing," she told the fisherman and he grabbed Hahnu by the scruff of her neck.

Raya flicked the defibrillator on and watched it crackle and calibrate.

 _"...please work..."_ she muttered as she brought it down on Soren's chest and squeezed the button with her thumb.

The device sparked and sent a shockwave through his body. It lurched but didn't animate and Raya brought two fingers up to his neck to check for a pulse. 

Nothing.

Nothing but the freezing cold skin beneath her touch.

"I told you, girl. He's gone," the fisherman said, holding back the snow fox. "Best let him rest."

"No." Raya shocked him again and felt for a pulse in his lifeless body.

The fisherman's wife returned to the room with a steaming pot of soup and almost dropped it. She managed to put it down on the table before turning to make sense of the ruckus.

Raya shocked him again. This time, some of his fingers twitched and Raya brightened as she felt a light heartbeat.

"You're only making it harder for yourself, vir'chah," the old woman said sympathetically, hugging her husband's arm.

"No." Raya put her ear to his chest, listening for a heartbeat she knew should be there. And it was. Faint but audible, the beat of a heart straining to pump coagulated blood through frozen veins.

Raya grinned and put away the defibrillator. 

She opened his mouth and breathed in, counting and following all the procedures Huonn drilled into her. And quite soon his lungs were filling with air all by themselves. His breathing was ragged and strained but audible and she quickly fished out a respirator mask from the med-kit to stabilize it.

Hahnu shook her fur out and escaped from the fisherman's grasp to fetch another blanket. She quickly covered Soren with it and settled in beside him, face resting on his chest.

The fisherman and his wife stood staring at the boy who was miraculously breathing once again. And then the old man shook his head.

"He's..."

"...alive." Raya grinned triumphantly.

She had no doubts about the quality of Huonn's work. Her serum would have no trouble regenerating a body that was practically whole. All it needed was a little encouragement.

"Do you have any more blankets?" the cocky girl asked them.

"Mmm, of course," the woman nodded and hurried away.

The fisherman remained where he was, watching her warily. He shook his head and sat down at the table where Raya had found him.

"You're Abacupfi." He lowered his brow, darkening his face with worry.

Raya bit her lip. She ought not to say anything but after what they'd seen?

"No." She stared into the flames. "Not yet..."

They sat in silence, watching the slow rise and fall of Soren's chest. Hahnu wrapped herself up beside him and drifted off by the warm fire. The fisherman's wife soon returned with more blankets and Raya busied herself tucking Soren's defrosting body beneath them.

"What are your names, vir'chah?" the woman asked kindly.

"Raya," she said, "and Oren."

"Mmm, I am Birsa'nadi'drulli, and this is my husband, Birsa'ver'foru." She smiled. "And you've already met Hahnu."

"Yes..." Raya nodded. "Thank you, for saving us."

"You'll have to thank Hahnu for that," Saver grumbled. "She found you out in the snow."

"I've never seen a cse’tsu this big." Raya eyed the huge animal.

"They're much larger out in the wild," Nadi smiled. "We found Hahnu when she was just a kit. Her mother was killed by poachers.

"Mmm, I can see why. Her fur is quite beautiful." She reached out to stroke it but the fox let out a low growl and she retracted her hand. "Not very friendly, though."

"Oh, she's just being overprotective." Nadi shrugged. "She seems to like your brother well enough. Will he be alright?

"Mmm..." Raya brushed a hand through Soren's hair, feeling the cold water melting out of the icy strands. "He heals like a cse’tsu.”

"Here, I brought you some clothes." She handed Raya a bundle.

"They aren't as pretty as the ones you had but they are warm."

"They're fine," Raya said, threading an arm into a sleeve. "Thank you."

The old woman shuffled away towards the table to ladle soup into her husband's bowl while Raya dressed herself. He took it from her gratefully and carved up a loaf of mre'evat for them to share. They set the table for four, laying out a complicated array of cutlery and side dishes, mostly consisting of fish.

Raya breathed in the smell of home cooked food and felt her stomach rumble as she watched over Soren.

"You're a bad influence," she muttered to him and the fox opened one eye protectively.

Raya shuffled away from it and turned to look at the table. The old couple was waiting for her.

"Come. Eat," Nadi beckoned with a bowl of soup. "Hahnu will watch him.”

Raya reluctantly left his side and walked over to the table. A hot meal was exactly what she needed and she gratefully accepted Nadi's offering.

"You're a wonderful cook," she said after downing an entire bowl of fish stew.

"You're too kind." Nadi smiled. "Help yourself to some smoked ro'pfuna. Saver makes them himself."

Raya quickly followed her advice and shovelled as much food into her mouth as her stomach would allow but soon found herself too full to continue. The old couple watched her lean back and sigh.

"I haven't eaten like that in years..." she groaned, remembering the complex meal plans they had to follow in the Shadow Operative Training Program. She hadn't even dreamed of carbohydrates and sugars in the same sentence.

"I should have a word with your parents for not feeding you properly," Nadi sniffed, nibbling at the mre'evat.

Raya frowned and looked back towards the fire.

"Our parents aren't to blame," she said quietly. "We did this to ourselves."

"You wandered out into the tundra on your own?" Nadi raised a curious eyebrow.

"No." Raya shook her head. "We crashed our speeder and decided to walk."

"You barely made it inside the basin," Saver grumbled, spearing a salted ju'si fish with a small trident.

"It wasn't the best plan," Raya admitted.

"Don't listen to him." Nadi shook her head. "You did well to get as far as you did. It's forty degrees below freezing out there. And you made it as far as Hahnu's den in that little jacket?"

"I remember when I used to look that pretty in a fur trimmed coat," she reminisced. "All curves and fluff and sass. Got a rude awakening when I moved out here. You city folk forget how cold it gets outside Napor with your heated roads and walkways."

"You still look pretty, ros'chah," the old man piped up.

"Oh, hush you. I need to take you into town to get your eyes checked."

"I told you, they're fine."

"So fine you couldn't spot two children out in the snow. Look at them. That one can hardly breathe."

"I have Hahnu for that."

"And what happens if she decides to leave or the poachers take her? You won't even make it home."

Saver frowned.

"Ma'resh, ros'chah..." He nibbled at his food.

"Are there many poachers in the area?" Raya asked curiously.

"Too many," Saver mumbled.

"They're the only ones who can afford to stay in town," Nadi explained. “Them and the Ruling Families.”

"What? Our family always came to stay for free," Raya remembered. "It was only for a few weeks but still..."

"That would have been when all the hotels and resorts were owned by the government. Everyone was given vouchers for accommodation as well as vacation time but now it's all been privatized and bought up by rich businessmen from the city," Nadi told her. "They remodelled the whole town but no one can afford to stay there anymore and quite frankly there are better places to go for that kind of money."

"That's why the Relah'fos Overpass was practically empty..." Raya frowned.

"Mmm, the poachers started coming a few years ago," Saver looked over at Hahnu. "The snow foxes have endless dens dug into the side of the basin. The poachers smoke them out and capture them, sell them to highest bidder."

"That's awful. Why does no one stop them?" Raya frowned.

"Cse'tsu are considered pests. They eat whatever they find, including livestock and corpses," Saver frowned. "The poachers are welcome to take as many as they want."

"And they still do," Nadi said, sipping her stew.

Raya looked at Hahnu sadly, wishing there was something she could say or do. Cse'tsu were just animals, furry and beautiful but in no way consequential to life on Naporar. Then why did she feel so bad? She never cared about creatures before. The fate of some ill-begotten poachers concerned her even less. And yet…

"I remember you," Raya said suddenly, looking at old woman with dark blue hair.

"You were one of the animators at Vil'lara Resort." She recognized her trim figure despite the years and the soft glow of her coral red eyes.

"Mmm, best bintu class I ever taught," she nodded. "But times change. Saver used to take big groups ice fishing out on the lake. Now he just takes Hahnu."

Raya frowned, wondering why the old woman was telling her this. All of it was unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but in respects to the town, to the old couple's lives, they were crucial. Soren would have quickly pieced it together as soon as they started talking but it took Raya all this time to realize they were asking for help.

Something was going on in Csiulast'ores and they couldn't say anything directly. Nadi was dancing around some crucial piece of information that she couldn't say out loud. This was how assassination contracts were made.

"Who did this to Csiulast'ores?" Raya asked casually, sipping her mug of spiced wine.

"Paiiri’rou'vrau," the name came out a little too quickly.

Saver looked up at his wife sternly but she showed no remorse for her actions and Raya pretended not to notice.

"He wouldn't happen to be related to Paiiri'sor'fines?" the young Chiss inquired.

Nadi gave a small nod and Raya closed her eyes.

The owner of the most prolific department store chain in the Ascendancy, a billionaire in a world where profits and taxes were strictly audited on a regular basis, a man with the gall to buy up a town and rebuild it, then gift the whole thing to his son.

"Interesting..." she whispered slyly. "How far is it to Csiulast'ores from here?"

"It's about an hour's walk down the trail," Nadi replied. "But you won't make it far in this weather. The wind's picked up, I'm afraid."

"You can go through the tunnels," Saver piped up. "Hahnu's den stretches all the way into town."

"She doesn't seem very keen on me." Raya smirked. "Maybe when Oren wakes up."

"Are you sure he will?" Nadi asked worriedly.

"Mmm, he's seen worse." Raya waved a hand casually. "And I can't leave him either..."

"Are you sure you don't want us to call someone?"

Raya smiled warmly and put down the mug. 

"That is the last thing I want you to do."


	13. The Living Dead

Soren mumbled awake and found his arms constricted by a collection of blankets from all sides. It was warm and his body was buzzing with pins and needles, his limbs stiff from defrosting but he managed to loosen his comfortable prison and sit up. 

The blurry shapes of colour around him sharpened and came into view. He looked at the fireplace dizzily and removed the mask that was attached to his face. There was also a giant white cloud dozing placidly by his side. 

He leaned in a little closer to inspect it but then the large white mass began to move and Soren froze all over again as it unravelled and stretched out its furry feet. It was twice larger than he was. Or perhaps three times, he thought, examining his bony arms and hands.

He noticed several fingers were growing back.

The cse'tsu sniffed at his face and examined him with its fiery eyes, all four blinking simultaneously and Soren dared not move. Finally, suspecting that he was of good stock, the creature licked his cheek and nuzzled his chest, tiny squeaks and barks escaping its mouth.

"Ch-chi'saranai..." Soren muttered, patting its head. It licked his hand and rubbed against him, cooing softly.

"You're so soft." He smiled and hugged his fluffy friend.

"Her name is Hahnu." Raya kneeled down beside him. "She rescued us."

"Really?" Soren muttered, still drowsy. "Why would they call you Hahnu?" He frowned.

"She's got quite a set of teeth on her," the man behind Raya rolled up his sleeve to reveal some nasty bite marks.

"Heeeeh? Hahnu, how could you?" Soren scolded the fox and pushed her aside. "I trusted you…”

She pretended to fall over, letting him punish her with belly rubs and Soren did his best to give her a good scratch but his fingers were still halved and stubby.

"She never lets me do that," the fisherman growled.

"That's because you smell like pesoh, ros'chah." The woman beside him smiled.

"Then he should be twice as appealing." Raya grinned.

"How long was I out?" Soren scratched behind Hahnu's ear.

"About eighteen hours..." Raya said nervously.

"Then we still have time.” He sniffed his leaking nose.

"Mmm, and we have a job to do."

"Eh?" He rubbed his eyes.

"It's important," Raya pressed.

"Mmm," he mumbled and tried to stand but his legs were still too stiff. He tripped over his own feet and Nadi rushed over to help him up.

"You've no weight at all, vir'chah," she fussed. "Come, eat something."

"Clothes first." Raya threw a shirt at him.

"Mmm," he mumbled again, slipping on the warm garments Nadi had brought. 

He pulled on the sweater and rolled up the sleeves but it still looked like he was drowning in it. Hahnu sniffed at the clothes and stuck her muzzle into his hand. Soren patted her head and followed Nadi and Raya to the table.

They proceeded to offer him food and the miraculously reanimated boy could not refuse such a generous spread. He gulped down half a pot of stew and picked clean several fish with his stubby, regenerating fingers. He gave one to Hahnu who warmed his legs under the table and she gratefully gnawed on it while he ate.

"You certainly are resilient," Nadi observed as Soren became more and more lively with each mouthful.

 _"...sure he was dead..."_ Saver mumbled as he watched the boy put away dish after dish.

Raya sat across from him, enjoying her wine. They only had a little more time before they had to go back out into the cold and she was making the most of it. Soren could tell she had more to say but not in front of the elder couple.

"I can't thank you enough for all of this," he said to them when he'd finished. 

"You're most welcome, vir'chah," Nadi smiled kindly. "Would you like some sweet velicsai?"

"I would love so-" he began but then he saw the look on Raya's face. "On the other hand, I may have overestimated my abilities..." He looked down at his empty plates. 

"We should probably get going..."

"Mmm." Raya nodded, standing. "Let's."

Chairs shuffled back in no particular order and the Chiss left the table as it was. Soren had to lean on it heavily to stand and Hahnu quickly nipped in behind him to push up with her head.

"Thank you." He patted her as she came around.

Raya strode briskly towards the door where another pile of warm clothing had been neatly constructed for both of them. She sat down and started pulling on boots and waterproof jackets and pants, layering up to weather the cold. 

Soren slowly made his way over and began doing the same. Hahnu rushed to his side and stole one of his boots as he threaded his leg into the other.

"Chen, Hahnu." He scrambled for the shoe. "Dai..."

Raya quickly grabbed the boot from the cse'tsu's mouth but it wouldn't let go. She pulled it forcefully and wrenched it out of her mouth, leaving several fang marks on the rubbery surface. The big white fox growled at her but she stared it down.

"Hahnu loves my shoes," Saver petted her head, soothing the angry beast. "Tears through a pair every week."

Soren put on the holey boot before she could snatch it again and proceeded wrapping himself in all the clothes Nadi had prepared. By the end, nothing but his eyes remained visible and he could spy Raya rolling hers irritably when he finally finished dressing.

"Let's go," she repeated.

The old fisherman came over and unbolted the vault door which led into the icy tunnels below. Raya went first, of course, slowly followed by Soren, stretching the muscles in his frozen legs, one awkward step at a time. He turned to wave at the old couple.

Nadi had wrapped herself around Saver's arm while she watched them go.

"Thank you for everything," Raya called and gave them a small knowing nod.

Saver narrowed his eyes and frowned but Nadi was still determined by his side. 

"Hahnu, ch'tra," he commanded, and the giant cse'tsu rushed out the door and passed the two young Chiss.

They heard the groan of pfal’mir and the crunching of snow as the door slid back into place and then a loud clunk when it locked.

"They seemed nice," Soren said, starting down the icy tunnel.

"Mmm.” Raya flicked on a jovli light. "So nice they ordered a hit on the Mayor of Csiulast'ores."

"What?" he asked, sure he had misheard.

But then Hahnu charged up at the ceiling of the tunnel and wriggled through an opening in the snow. Her cloud-like body disappeared entirely, leaving them all alone beneath the ground. 

"Well, so much for our guide," Raya scoffed, shaking her head.

"Hahnu?" Soren called out. "Are you there?"

"It's a cse'tsu," Raya said irritably. “They don't talk.” 

"No, but they're very intelligent," he rebutted. "They have very good memories and can understand over three hundred different commands if taught properly."

"My mother used to have one," Raya said callously. "It was the dumbest animal I've ever seen."

"The domesticated ones are a product of selective breeding. They're mostly for show. Their brains are about the size of a chai nut."

"I don't think this one's any bigger," she smirked.

"Give it a moment. She's hunting.”

"For what?" Raya threw up a hand. "There's nothing up there."

"Look." He pointed to the spot where snow began drifting down from the ceiling and suddenly the fluffy white snow fox came barreling through it. 

She gracefully landed on all fours and padded over to them with a furry vole creature dangling from her mouth. Soren patted her head as she passed by, wiggling her tail for him to follow.

"She wants us to go with her."

"This better not be a trap," Raya grumbled.

"I thought it was just a dumb animal,” he said. "Besides, it would be easier to leave us here to freeze."

Hahnu wandered through the tunnel, coming to a rocky outcrop that was jutting out at a weird angle. Soren made to follow but it was slow going and Raya grew impatient.

"Come on, hurry up." She pushed him from behind, feeling his back lock up.

"I-I can do it myself," he worried, shaking off her hands.

Raya tutted and waited for him to move. When he finally reached the outcrop, Soren could see it was concealing a crevice and Hahnu quickly crawled in head first.

"This must be her den." Soren examined the inconspicuous hole in the bank.

"Get in," Raya said flatly.

He looked down into the dark abyss and gulped.

"You alright?" she asked. “Or do you need help?”

"I'm fine."

He climbed in, sliding feet first into the icy tunnel and came out of it, into a roll. He heard Raya follow and quickly scrambled out of the way, falling flat on his face. She landed far more gracefully beside him and stood up, quickly eyeing her new surroundings. 

There was ample room for the young Chiss to stand and even jump. The cavern was wide and decorated with wildflowers and vines of every colour, glowing bits of moss skirted the walls and illuminated the tunnel. But the smell…

"Feugh, it smells like a cse'tsu den in here." Raya wrinkled her nose.

"Did you expect perfumed water and velicsa?"

"Maybe a little less bre'es." She fanned her face with a hand.

Hahnu padded away down the tunnel with her food and Soren quickly rose to follow, examining the walls as they went.

"This place is incredible," he murmured. "It must be hundreds of years old..."

"One cse’tsu dug all this?"

"I doubt it." Soren brushed the bright yellow flowers on the wall. "They pass on their dens from generation to generation, expanding the original where they see fit."

"How do you know so much about these things?" his reluctant companion grumbled.

Soren stopped for a second but kept moving when she pierced him with a disapproving look.

"The serum," he said. "It's more of a virus really..."

"You gave me a virus?!" Raya's eyes went wide.

"No," he said, "just blood."

Raya rubbed at her arm, unconvinced as they walked through the tunnel.

"I sliced into Huonn's research files," he admitted. "The virus breaks down Chiss DNA and replaces a few strands with cse'tsu genes, specifically the ones that stimulate growth and regeneration. We're only 98% compatible with them, so it doesn't take effect in many subjects."

"The others die?" Raya supposed.

"Mmm." He frowned. "It's better than what happens to the successful cases."

"What do you mean? You turned out alright," Raya paused. "I mean, you were a weakling before so, no big change."

"It's a forced mutation," he explained. "I was lucky. The others... not so much."

"You mean they all grew fur and smelled terrible?" Raya smiled, imagining Soren with a big bushy tail.

"One man's eye split in two." Soren frowned. "Another woman's eardrums burst after hearing a siren. Most of them grew brain tumors and died anyway."

Raya suddenly went quiet.

She knew Huonn was ruthless. The only reason she became an Overseer was so she could legally experiment on living Chiss and it was no secret which achievement she was most proud of. Huonn had tried replicating it in several of Raya’s classmates but they all ended up being carted away, never to return.

She suddenly realized where all of them had been taken. Deep below Shadow Base. The two young Chiss had not been surrounded by prisoners like she first thought. They were surrounded by experiments. And Soren was one of them.

He trundled along in front of her stiffly. One of his legs still wasn't bending properly but he did his best to keep moving. She found her hand reaching out to help him but pulled back, remembering how uncomfortable he was with her touch. They would just have to move along at his pace.

Hahnu rounded a corner and entered a cavern that was a bit different from the others. There was snow in the walls where in the others there had been soil and flowers. She padded up to the makeshift icebox and dug a hole, carefully placing her catch inside before filling it back up with her hind legs.

Satisfied that her kill was safely stored, she wandered over to Soren and brushed up against him.

"You must smell like cse'tsu," Raya supposed.

"Mmmm, she probably thinks someone kicked me out of their den," he said, brushing her fur.

"Can you take us to the lake, Hahnu?" he asked politely.

"We're not going to the lake," Raya butted in.

Soren frowned. The same scowl he’d given her back on the raft.

"We have a job to do,” she explained.

"We're not Abacupfi," he said. "It's not our job to assassinate people inside the Ascendancy."

"We owe that old couple our lives," Raya persisted.

"Did you tell them who we are?"

"They kind of pieced it together when I reanimated your corpse."

"I was... really dead?" he asked worriedly.

Raya looked away and nodded.

"Some of your fingers and toes broke off when I carried you inside," she said apologetically. "Sorry."

Soren flexed his hand.

"That explains the stiffness but it doesn't mean we're going to kill the Mayor of Csiulast'ores," he decided. "We don't have official sanction to act within the Ascendancy, you know that."

"Then we'll just have to make it look like an accident," Raya told him.

Soren stared at her bluntly, clearly remembering the speeder _accident._

"Look, I'll follow your lead if it makes you feel any better. But we have to do something. He's run the entire town into the ground, unemployed all the people who worked here and now there are poachers hunting cse'tsu by the dozen. An Abacupfi would help."

"A Nobody wouldn't let it get to that stage unless they had a reason. We could be interfering with a sting operation if the Mayor is crooked."

"There's no one here to help them." Raya shook her head. "Their son was the Abacupfi."

Soren frowned, staring deep into her eyes as Hahnu nuzzled his shoulder.

"And he's missing," he pieced it together.

Raya nodded.

"It's still not our business," he said sternly.

"It doesn't matter!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the tunnels. "We have to do something."

Hahnu bristled at Soren's side and began a low menacing growl.

"You don't want to go back, do you?" he said accusingly.

"That's not what this is.”

"No, I think that's exactly what this is." He lowered his head and dark shadows spilled over his face. "You still want to run."

"I want to help," she stared back at him. "With or without you..." 

She turned on her heel and walked off.

"You don't know where you're going!" he called to her back.

"And your stupid cse'tsu does?" she sneered. "I'll be fine." She stalked off.

Soren looked back at Hahnu. She was taller than he was and her four red eyes were studying him intently. She could sense his indecision.

"Hahnu." He ran his hand through her fur. "Take me to Csiulast'ores."


	14. Just kids

Once, the town of Csiulast'ores had been a bustling hub of recreational activity sponsored by a government initiative to bring tourism to the surrounding areas. Along the banks of Lake Csiulast were built a cluster of resorts that catered to Chiss who were given travel vouchers to summer not far from home. The many pensions and hotels provided plenty of entertainment and dining options for all ages and interests. 

Once upon a time.

Since the Hospitality Privatisation Act of 13059●423 however, each resort was bought up and rebuilt by its new owner into a gleaming example of luxury lakeside accommodation. Walls were heightened, halls were widened, dining was refined and slowly but surely the staff were replaced with younger, trendier Chiss who offered a very different kind of holiday to its clientele.

The streets of Csiulast'ores were repaved with heated mirai'nis and lit with helical lamps of white light. The Esplanade became a long illuminated path, lined with luxurious resorts that provided uninterrupted views of the icy lake and the occasional breathtaking sunrise. But nary a soul could be seen enjoying the splendour of the newly constructed vacational haven and even fewer could afford it.

Behind the Esplanade lay what remained of the small but prominent lakeside town, most of its tiny shops and cafes closed for lack of business. All that remained were the bare essentials that kept the relatively small population fed and healthy and even those often struggled to stay open.

A big fluffy cloud of fur crawled out of a hole in the ground and onto a plateau overlooking the small lakeside town in its entirety. Two young Chiss slowly followed and made their way towards the edge.

Hahnu rubbed against Soren's back as he took off his headgear and soaked in the changes that had taken place since his last visit.

"The Esplanade looks completely different," Raya said beside him. "And what a surprise, the Town Hall is right on the end there." She pointed it out.

 _"That's the Town Hall?"_ Soren looked over the shining crystal manor that grew out of the cluster of resorts.

"Mmm, see the Ascendant crest on the tower?"

"Ridiculous." He shook his head. "Where did they get the money for all this?"

"Exactly," Raya nodded. "We need to investigate."

"Cheh!" a voice called out through the whipping wind. "What are you kids doing out here?"

Three tall men in white camouflage approached from the other end of the plateau. Big packs covered their backs and rifles hung from their shoulders, their faces were hidden by snow masks. 

Soren also noted the steel toecaps on their shoes, caked brown with dry and frozen blood. A low growl emanated from Hahnu’s throat and Soren instantly knew who they were.

"Poachers," he whispered to Raya and she bristled beside him.

"You look like you're lost," one of them said.

"I think they're being _attacked,"_ said another.

"Mmmm, that's a real big one you found, kids." The first man stopped and put a hand on his hip. "Step away, we'll deal with it."

"We can handle ourselves," Raya said sternly.

"Move aside, girl. Wouldn't want that pretty face to get hurt," he chuckled.

"You have no authority over us," Soren said diplomatically. "And you have no right to ownership of this creature."

"That's where you're wrong, boy," the poacher said. "Bag it." 

He nodded to the man on his right who quickly fired his weapon, releasing a large shock net that covered and trapped the giant snow fox before either Soren or Raya could react.

The leader of the troupe clicked a pin attached to his bandolier and it lit up with a spiral of Cheunh characters which spelled out the words "...Crahstor Xom’ura’matu, in service of Csiulast'ores'creis Paiiri’rou'vrau..."

"You see? We're working under official sanction of the Mayor," he said smugly. "And he's commissioned us to smoke out every one of these beasts from their warrens."

"For a price, I imagine?" Soren raised an accusing eyebrow.

"Of course,” he said calmly. "If you have any complaints, I suggest you take them up to the Mayor's office." He clicked off the holopin.

"Take it," Murama growled at the other poachers.

They both rushed over to muzzle Hahnu. The fidgeting fox was still writhing in the shock net, itching to escape. Soren frowned but didn't stop them. He took a step towards Murama and said, “I want to ask you something." 

"We can give you a ride into town, kid. You don't need to beg." He shook his head.

"Is it worth it?" Soren asked curiously.

The captain looked at him oddly for a moment.

"Of course, it's worth it. These things fetch up to two hundred chousen each." Greed coloured his burning eyes. "This one's gonna be at least five." He watched Hahnu struggling from afar.

"And how many would you say you catch per day?" Soren inquired.

"Five, maybe ten on a good day," the poacher considered. "You want to help out? We could use an extra pair of hands to carry our ge-"

The shot rang out, muffled through wind and snow.

The poacher was thrown back and landed painfully against the icy plateau in a flourish of blue light. Soren had drawn the emergency charric blaster he'd been carrying all this time while the man was distracted and fired directly at his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The boy turned slowly to find the other two poachers writhing around in pain. Raya stood over them triumphantly, clapping the snow off her hands. He walked over and finished each man with a shot to the head before stowing the weapon and pulling a knife out of their packs.

"Grab their gear," he told Raya. "I'll free Hahnu."

She was wriggling helplessly under the shock net, her movements causing sparks to zap at her body from all sides, increasing her panic.

Soren quickly found the mechanism that was causing the discharge and disabled the shocks. He sliced the net and threw it open so that Hahnu could escape. The cse'tsu burst out of the knotted web and bounded away to the other end of the plateau.

"It's alright," he said, rising slowly. "They can't hurt you..." 

He kicked the nearest poacher to demonstrate.

Hahnu watched him cautiously, her beautiful white fur blended perfectly into the snowy landscape but her eyes were wholly black and terrified.

Raya suddenly lifted one of the poachers into the air and shook him to see what would fall out. She rattled his corpse until several pistols, grapples and canteens toppled onto the icy plateau with a loud clack.

Hahnu scrambled, startled by the sound and dashed away into her den.

"Could you _be_ any louder?" Soren hissed in Raya's direction.

"Says the guy with the charric," she smirked and continued stripping the poachers.

They dragged them into Hahnu's den and swapped out their clothes to disguise themselves.

"Is it alright to just leave them here?" Raya asked, cocking a rifle.

"Hahnu will come sniffing around eventually. She'll probably store the meat in her freezer room." Soren pulled on a balaclava. "We should cave in this entrance in case any more poachers come by."

"She'll just dig through it again."

"Not for a while." Soren frowned. "She's too frightened."

"Ma'resh.” Raya nodded, leaving the den and waiting for Soren to scramble through.

They kicked in the soil, collapsing the entrance and topped it with snow to make sure no one would see it before leaving the plateau.

They left the same way the poachers had come and quickly discovered a trail which led into town. Raya took point and began trekking down the side of the hill.

"You think anyone heard the shots?"

"Unlikely," Soren mumbled through the balaclava. "The winds are pretty strong, even inside the basin."

"No kidding," Raya held out her arms trying to stay balanced. Soren trailed behind her as she made her way down.

"These aren't just hunting rifles," Soren examined the gun. "They're modified with sound reduction barrels."

"Silenced rifles? For poachers?" Raya pushed her way through the snow.

Soren pulled off the cartridge. "High impact rounds. Thermasteel. This isn't made in the Ascendancy..."

"You think they're trading with the Empire?"

"Thermasteel rounds are manufactured on Balmorra. It's a Republic world, now controlled by the Empire..."

"Smuggled in from the Republic?"

"Likely trading for something." Soren narrowed his eyes. "And I don't think it's fox fur..."

"Would explain where they got the money," Raya said. "And how they manage to keep everything running despite it costing a fortune."

"We should investigate," he said, coming up beside her.

Raya turned to look at him.

"I told you." Her mouth curled into the most insidious smile.

Soren frowned and turned away. "The Town Hall is a good place to start,” he said.

"We can cut through the old part of town," she pointed to the cluster of snowcapped buildings behind the magnificent manses by the shore.

The trail led them straight to it and several more poachers appeared with a hovercart full of cse'tsu, wriggling and writhing in their nets. Raya clenched her fists and made to stomp over and give them a piece of her mind but Soren pulled her back

"No," he wheezed. "We can't draw attention to ourselves.” He pleaded with his eyes so he wouldn't have to touch her again.

Raya stopped but her furious glare followed the white-clad Chiss as they hovered the creatures down the street. It was almost deserted and they stuck out against the dark.

"They're all wearing the same gear," she noticed suddenly. "Like..."

"...a uniform," Soren finished. "Probably mercenaries, disguised as poachers. A private army."

"Why would they need an army of hired guns?" Raya's gaze followed them suspiciously.

"To keep people quiet," Soren pointed out the elderly man scrambling away from the poachers and their cart.

"You think they've taken over the town?"

“Maybe," he considered. "You said the Abacupfi that guards this town is missing..."

"If he's dead, this place would be crawling with Nobodies. If he failed to report in once or twice..."

"They'd send in the Cleaners," he agreed. "He could still be alive."

"Held hostage?"

"More likely he's in league with the Mayor," Soren extrapolated. "An Abacupfi in your pocket is worth ten times more than an army of hired guns."

"And if he has both?" Raya frowned.

"We need to be careful," Soren warned. "We need to know more before we make a move."

The poachers turned a corner and disappeared, leaving the elderly man to continue on his way but as soon as he saw the two Chiss in white, he tripped over his feet and landed on the icy ground.

Soren and Raya rushed over to help him up but the old man began muttering and waving his hands.

"No, no, it was my fault," he assured them. "I didn't see anything, I swear."

"It's alright," Raya said, picking him up by the arms. "We're here to help." She winked.

The elderly Chiss stared at her for a moment and then turned to Soren who offered him the hiking stick he'd dropped.

"Y-you're..."

"Tschhh." Soren put a finger to his mouth. "Where are they taking the cse'tsu?"

The old man looked at him oddly.

"The old Vil'lara resort." He pointed the way the poachers had gone.

"Chah'ir'vahs," Soren nodded. "Stay safe. Say nothing," he warned and the old man nodded back.

Raya glided up beside him and they turned to go.

"Y-you're just kids," the old man wheezed incredulously.

"Mmm," they nodded. "Just kids..."


	15. Discovery

The Vil'lara Resort was once the first in line on the banks of Lake Csiu'last. Its large front yard was home to a children's playground and outdoor recreational area which was subsequently demolished to make way for the new and grand Csiulast'ores Town Hall. What remained of the Resort became an unsightly back door to its elegant neighbour where several unsavoury men came to deliver wild cse'tsu by the cartful.

Two poachers, masked in white, loitered on the corner of the street, watching the procedure from a distance.

"You shouldn't have said anything," Soren grumbled.

"He was terrified."

"He didn't need to know."

"Everyone needs to know," Raya rebutted. "The Abacupfi aren't crooks."

"You've given him false hope and possibly blown our cover."

"You're exaggerating. It's just some old guy. And I gave him real hope. We're going to fix this."

"You don't know that. Things could go wrong. We could just make everything worse."

"Don't worry." Raya shrugged. "I'll protect you."

"It's not me I'm worried about," Soren frowned.

"What?"

"They're done," he said, creeping out of the shadows. "Let's go."

Raya followed. They did their best to imitate the confident saunter of the poachers they'd killed and wandered up to the back gate of the old Vil'lara resort. 

Soren knocked on the doors, imitating the men they’d been watching from afar and the intercom activated.

"Dropoff or pickup?" a weary voice spoke.

"Pickup," Soren mimicked the gruff voice of the poacher he'd shot point blank. The impersonation was flawless and caught Raya completely off guard.

"Just the two of you?" the man over the speaker asked suspiciously.

"Big groups get the townsfolk all curious." Soren shrugged.

"Suppose you're right." He sighed. "Flash your IDs then and we'll get you sorted out."

The two of them clicked on their holopins and waited for the terminal to register.

"Nnnn, you two have already made a delivery today," the voice said.

"We had to split up the shipment since there's only two of us," Soren tried to sound genuine. He could usually read people but it was difficult over the intercom, the voice was distorted by static.

"Mmmm, you're registered as a group of three."

"Yeah, Shunei’s had enough this week," he said, remembering the man's name from the ID.

There was a staticy silence while the gatekeeper considered them but eventually he was convinced. The doors swung open and Soren and Raya wandered in with the same casual saunter.

"Just two cases then," said the man behind the door as they entered.

The Vil’lara Resort they’d both known as children had been entirely stripped out and instead of the comforting warmth that usually accompanied entrance, there was frost. No heat inside. Machines lined the walls, humming, grinding, crushing, crackling with function. Carts of cse’tsu were deposited on the west side and emptied into a metal chute which disappeared into the machine. The ungodly sounds of butchery followed the mechanism as it snaked through the vast hall. Then there was grinding and refining through more apparatus, until finally, through several thick glass tubes, a bright red liquid was squeezed into tiny vials. All packed and boxed on the east side.

Soren quickly made note of the entire assembly and walked over to the stack of crates the gatekeeper had pointed to. His accomplice, however, was stuck staring at the whole contrivance with silent fury. The tiny poacher returned to her side and pushed the crate into her hands, careful to avoid her touch. Raya broke out of angry paralysis to glare at him but his eyes implored her not to make a scene.

Reluctantly, she agreed with a nod and marched back out the doors they had entered through. Soren picked up another crate and followed.

“See you next time,” he said to the man who’d let them in.

He grunted a response and went back to some business on his computer, letting him leave unmolested.

Outside, Soren found a very impatient Raya glaring at the crate in her hands.

“Act natural,” he hissed through his teeth as he walked past. She followed.

Once they were far enough away and safely hidden in an alley, she promptly threw the crate down and splayed her hands.

“What in all of gen’tahru’sai was that?!” she hissed.

“Shut up, we’re trying to be stealthy.”

Raya took a deep breath and lowered her voice down to a whisper.

 _“What the actual v'ress was that?”_ she hissed quietly.

“A production line,” Soren told her, carefully placing his crate down on the ground. 

He activated the release and the lid depressurized, sliding off the top. His gloved fingers managed to pull out a single vial of red liquid which he examined closely.

“For whatever this is.”

“Vrin’tas’mi.” Raya cringed. “It’s made of cse’tsu.”

“Which technically isn’t illegal,” Soren pointed out. “But what it becomes might be…”

“You think they’re making drugs out of the blood?”

“And smuggling them out of the Basin somehow. Trading it for goods with the Empire or the Republic.”

“That’s illegal,” Raya said.

“Unless they have the right permits and they already trade with the Empire. But if this substance is illegal and they’re smuggling it in with their usual goods…”

“Then we’ve got them,” Raya grinned wickedly.

Soren nodded.

“We have to know what’s in this. And its effect on alien species,” he said thoughtfully. “Humans would be the most common, I imagine.”

“I could analyse the sample if we had access to basic lab equipment,” Raya offered. 

“Would the one at the local general practitioner’s office suffice?”

“Maybe,” Raya considered. “I think we’d have better luck with the pharmacist.”

“Alright,” Soren said. “How many vials of this stuff do you need?”

“Take ten, just in case.”

They filled their pockets with strange tubes and hid the crates in a snow drift before sneaking through the alley and out into the street.

“The pharmacy will be closing soon,” Soren noticed the lights blinking out in the town.

“I can get us in through the back.” Raya sauntered off confidently.

“Hey, wait.” Soren hurried after her. His leg was repaired but still too stiff to keep pace.

“Come on, k’rahtu,” she hissed.

The snowy streets of the old town were swept with winds but nothing as cold as the ones they had already endured. The ground wasn’t heated and the buildings around them were mostly single-storied, standing close to their neighbours as if bundled up in the cold. Each structure was silver and steel, insulated and roofed diagonally so that snow would melt off the side when their heated panels were active. A glowing neon sign marked every store and service center with large Cheunh characters that twirled clockwise for them to read.

“There it is.” Raya pointed to the pharmacy.

A middle-aged Chiss woman was locking up for the day with an ancient set of keycards, handed down through generations of pharmacists all the way down to the present one. She sealed the back door and pocketed the keys, wandering off into the night as the two young Chiss watched.

They huddled behind an adjacent building and waited for her to disappear around the corner before they crept out of hiding. A lonely lamp remained on to illuminate the street which was empty of souls, save two.

Raya picked up a rock and made to smash the lock on the door but Soren threw up his hands.

 _“Wait,”_ he hissed.

“We don’t have time for you to pick the lock,” she whispered angrily.

“Look,” he said, pointing at the ground.

There was an old ceramic statuette by the door. The likeness of a cse’tsu curled up in a sleepy ball in the snow.

Soren kneeled down and lifted it to reveal a spare keycard, far newer than the one the old woman possessed but just as effective. He swiped it through the lock and it opened without complaint.

“How did you know it was there?” Raya asked him curiously.

“She patted the figure before leaving.”

“Tchh. Come on, then.” Raya led the way into the pharmacy.

They entered the back room and Soren quietly closed the door behind him. Sensors detected their presence and flickered the lights on automatically, revealing the humble but well-stocked laboratory and storeroom. No security was needed in a small town like Csiulast’ores. 

Raya quickly sat down in the old leather chair and booted up the computer.

“Tchhh. It needs a password,” she groaned. 

“You should know how to bypass it,” Soren pointed out.

Raya winced.

Of course, she should know. If only her brain wasn’t full to bursting with all the other things she should know. She sighed and opened a terminal prompt, slowly but steadily slicing through the many backdoors until…

 _“Ktah,”_ she swore under her breath.

“What?”

“It locked me out.”

Soren wandered over to look at the mess she’d made.

“You were close,” he said, tapping at the keypad. “There.”

“Now I’m back to where I started,” she complained, throwing herself back against the chair.

Soren wandered away and returned a moment later to place a framed image on the table in front of Raya. It was a picture of the pharmacist and a small white creature on her lap. A tiny scribble read ‘Fufu’s first birthday’.

“What is this?” Raya grimaced.

“The password.” Soren pointed out the wall-chrono in the right hand corner of the image. 

“Fufu13045461? Are you serious?”

Soren shrank away under her gaze and took a step back.

“Tch, fine,” she grumbled, typing in the string of characters with a little too much passive aggression. The computer considered the entry for a moment and quickly unlocked the terminal with a melodious welcoming sound.

“See?” Soren said quietly,

“Ma’resh.” Raya rolled her eyes. “Crazy old cse’tsu lady…”

“How long do you need to process the samples?” 

“It looks like she's got all the right software. The equipment's not great but I should be able to do two at a time.”

“Start with opiate analysis.”

“I know what I'm doing,” she said angrily and Soren backed away, hands up in surrender.

He wandered off towards the storeroom, scanning the many organized shelves for useful medicines and stuffing a few in his pockets.

His aching legs took him further into the pharmacy, around the front counter where another terminal sat dormant on an orderly desk. Soren carefully sat down on the adjacent stool, grateful to be resting again and booted up the computer. This one was used as a till and accounting system but the money didn't concern him right now. He bypassed the security with more luck than Raya had and logged in to browse the pharmacist's mailbox.

What he found didn't please him.

There was a datapad hidden neatly in a wall safe that Soren opened using the terminal. Inside, he found more disconcerting information and a list of special orders the pharmacist had received from the townsfolk.

“Nnnn,” he worried as he wandered into the back room where Raya was fiddling with a pipette.

“What?” she asked without looking up.

Soren shuffled through the parchment and read.

_“Dear tenant,  
It has come to our attention that your business has forgone payment of the compulsory upkeep tax instituted by Csiulast’ores’creis Paiiri’rou’vrau to continue to provide a safe and comfortable environment for all citizens of our beautiful town. We encourage you to make the payment within the next week or contact the Mayor's Office to discuss changes to your payment method at your earliest convenience…”_

“Pff,” Raya scoffed. “More like extortion tax.”

“Protection money,” Soren agreed.

“Anything else?”

Soren rolled up the parchment and pulled out the datapad to read another message.

_“Most respected Nuahl’uaxi’shua,_  
_This message is in regard to your query received on 13062.101. I regret to inform you that your pharmaceutical license is coming to expire as of 13062.278 and cannot be renewed remotely from your location in Csiulast’ores._  
_We kindly request that you attend the necessary six month course to renew your licence in Napor City. All expenses paid. A replacement pharmacist shall be assigned to attend your establishment in the interim. Greatest apologies for the inconvenience…”_

“She wanted to stay?”

“A new face in Csiulast'ores would raise questions,” Soren supposed.

“You think they have something on her too?”

“No,” he replied grimly, tapping at the datapad. “I think she was scared of being killed if she tried to leave.”

“That's awful.” Raya looked down at her tray of tubes. “I didn't realize how bad it was.”

“Neither did I.”

They said nothing to each other for a while. 

Raya squeezed some of the liquid cse’tsu onto a glass slide and added a drop of testing solution before sliding it into the machine. It snapped shut at the touch of a button and began whirring softly.

Soren found a new datapad and busied himself with looking through the Pharmacist’s correspondence but there wasn’t much else for him to do. Nothing else to say.

It was getting awkward again. And he hated awkward.

He looked up at Raya and caught her staring at him.

“I'm sorry I accused you wanting to leave,” he said rather quickly. “It wasn’t fair of me to-”

“It's alright,” Raya told him. “I still do.”

She swivelled around in the chair, leaning into the comfy back with her hands clasped over her belly.

“But you stayed to help these people?” Soren puzzled.

“It's what Abacupfi do, right?” 

“We're not-” Soren began but one of the machines on table beeped and hissed.

“Looks like the analysis is done.” Raya opened up the readings. “Eh?”

“What is it?”

“It's a mess,” she murmured into the screen. “PCBA inhibitors, MX-58, PT-141, second strain rhyll, laced with regular spice. And I think that’s glitterstim.” She pointed at one of the spikes in the chart. “That’s crackerjack. And the csetsu blood. Looks like it’s being used as a stabiliser.”

“Quite a cocktail,” Soren glanced over her shoulder. “And way too potent for Humans.”

“Mmm, their hearts couldn't take it. I don't think a Chiss could either,” she considered, glancing over her shoulder. “Maybe you?”

“I’d rather not.” 

“Might get your libido going...”

“I don't think so,” he said, edging away.

“What's wrong? Afraid your chasvik will explode?”

“Or my heart,” he said.

“What’s our next move then, genius?”

“What, you're actually going to listen to me now?”

“I promised I'd take your lead, didn't I?”

Soren narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Forgive me if I find that disingenuous,” he said to his datapad. “Our next move is to prove the Mayor is behind all this.”

“What do you mean? The factory is right behind the Town Hall. There's no way he can deny it.”

“Legally, he can,” Soren corrected. “We need hard evidence before we can proceed.”

“Urgh, why can't we just kill him?” Raya groaned.

“We're not assassins.”

“Yeah, but we're not Abacupfi either, as you like to keep reminding me.”

“Exactly, we’re not. Our job is to collect enough evidence for a real Abacupfi to come and take care of the situation.”

“I don’t believe this,” Raya scoffed. “You want to do all the legwork for the pencil pusher that comes to ace Mr Fancypants?”

Soren scowled.

“He’s right there.” Raya pointed in the direction of the Town Hall. “Let’s just go kill him.”

“The solution may not be murder,” Soren insisted. “If all he’s doing is smuggling then he doesn’t deserve a death sentence.”

“He’s slaughtered thousands of cse’tsu for this super powered chasvik juice. Now that I think about it, there is one species that would find a use for this stuff - the Hutts.”

“According to Chiss Law-”

“Screw the law, k’rahtu!” Raya threw up her hands. “Nobodies exist to fix things when the law isn’t enough.”

“We’re not Abacupfi,” Soren repeated angrily. “We’re cadets and we’re in way over our heads.”

“We kill Sith and Jedi and Mandalorians as training exercises,” Raya smirked. “At least, I do.” She swivelled her chair again. “I’m pretty sure we can handle one tiny Chiss Mayor that inherited his entire business from his daddy."

Soren breathed out loudly.

“Even if we wanted to kill him, we need to find evidence that he is directly involved in the capture and slaughter of cse’tsu in order to create and smuggle their byproducts outside the Ascendancy.”

“We need to know that he is directly responsible for the subjugation of Csiulast’ores and its citizens. And that if we were to kill him, someone else wouldn’t simply take his place in the hierarchy.”

“You want to destroy the whole system,” Raya said with an approving grin.

“Duh.” He rolled his eyes. “Do you know how many kids Paiiri’sor’fines has?”

He showed her the datapad.

“Sixteen.” He pointed at the family tree. “We kill this one without laying a fat stack of evidence at his feet and he’ll just send another to take his place.”

Raya looked at the datapad and frowned, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

“But if we expose the operation then they’ll have to pack it all up and lay low while the Miurani Family audit all of Paiiri’s holdings.”

“Yes,” Soren nodded with relief.

Raya returned the datapad.

“We have to get into the Town Hall and search his office,” she said.

“Yes, exactly,” Soren agreed.

“And then we kill him.”

Soren opened his mouth to say something but decided against it.

“Why do I even bother?” he muttered to himself, returning to the datapad.

“So how do we get into the Town Hall, genius?”

“I’m working on it.”

Raya pouted her frosted lips and rolled her eyes.

“Pfooo,” she breathed out, swivelling her chair back around to the table. “Guess I’d better clean up this mess,” she said unenthusiastically.

She pulled a sample out of the analyzer lazily with one hand and then another and another. Cleaning up after herself was a chore and Raya much preferred total destruction to careful cover up unlike Mr Proper back there. 

It was times like these she would employ the wonderful properties of her enhanced bodily features to exploit the male psyche. However in this case, her feminine wiles weren’t going to be so effective. She couldn't touch him but if she’d analyzed his psych profile correctly…

“Alright, I’m done,” Soren told her, stowing the datapad in his pack.

He came back over to the table and found Raya desperately cleaning the gunk off a slide with disinfectant.

“This is a mess,” he said worriedly. “Let me help you with that.”

And so he did.

Raya leaned back in her chair, pretending to scrub a test tube clean with a brush while Soren sterilized the entire surface and carefully organized each and every item back into its original position. So absorbed was he in his occupation that he failed to notice Raya was actually filing her nails instead of helping.

“Pfoo, ma’resh,” he breathed out. “That should do it.”

Raya sat up and pleasantly smiled.

“So how are we getting into the Mayor’s office?” she asked.

“We’re going shopping.”


	16. Appearances

Chiss are nothing if not a fashionable species. The fabric and cut of your cloth can speak volumes of your origins, your profession and your work ethic. A single thread out of place can be the downfall of Aristocra and commoner alike. And a warrior’s uniform left unpressed brings dishonour upon the entire Defense Force. 

Though some are vain, most are practical and a Chiss looks their best wherever they go.

Raya was no exception.

She seamlessly blended colours and styles to create new looks that both defied established tendencies and exploited classical ideas. With a keen eye and a stolen credit chit, she could assemble a brand new wardrobe in a matter of minutes and never repeat an outfit.

Every skirt was flattering on her wide curving hips. Every dress divine on her long blue legs and every blouse was filled out by full round breasts. And she had no trouble revealing just a little too much of each.

“What do you think?” she said, holding up her hair.

The latest ensemble was satin and black and floor length to boot. It spilled over the floor, held up by a silver choker spiralling around her neck.

She turned to find Soren asleep on the comfy lounge, curled up in a ball.

“Hey, k’rahtu,” she hissed at him. “Wake up.”

“Nnnn?” he mumbled and rubbed his eyes.

“Come on, get up,” she goaded.

Soren yawned and reluctantly sat up, rubbing his eyes some more.

“How do I look?” she asked, sticking a leg out of the discrete cut in her long shimmering dress.

His eyes found the hem and followed it up past her hips and her waist and her chest and stopped at her burning scarlet eyes, made brighter by brilliant ruby earrings.

“Well?” she demanded impatiently as the boy turned a deep shade of violet. “We haven't got all day.”

“What difference does it make?” he said bitterly, folding his arms. “You always look good. Can we _go_ now?”

Raya sniffed at him and turned to admire her reflection.

“We can't _go_ until we both find something to wear.”

Soren frowned and turned away. 

There was a tall mannequin nearby, dressed in a sleek black suit with a silver trim. He looked up at it sourly, imagining himself drowning inside the fabric like a toddler.

“There’s nothing here that will fit me anyway.” He lowered his head into his hands. “I'll have better luck at the children's store.”

“This is a boutique, k’rahtu,” Raya smirked, letting her hair down. “They have an in-house tailor so just pick a suit and they'll make it for you.”

“It'll take too long,” he grumbled without looking up.

“Excuse me,” Raya sang melodiously to the shop assistant. 

A tall woman in a stylish grey outfit appeared in the doorway to the dressing room and bowed politely.

“How long does it take to make a suit from scratch?” Raya asked.

The lady looked over at Soren and said, “For the boy? Oh, no longer than an hour, nara’seh.”

“Excellent,” Raya trilled, pointing a finger. “He wants the black one on that mannequin over there.”

“I'll call the tailor,” the shop assistant nodded, bustling away.

“This is a waste of time,” Soren grumbled.

“You're the one who said we need disguises.”

“I didn’t think it would take this long. We have less than twenty two hours left and you’re wasting them on clothes…”

“Clothes are fifty percent of a disguise,” Raya told him, swapping out the holographic dress. “You can't go to a high society function dressed like a filthy poacher.”

Soren scowled in reply. He got up and walked away from the lounge and the holo-podium, stopping to double-take a mirror. The stolen poacher’s uniform was white and grey camouflage, rolled up at the sleeves and ankles to fit him.

“At least I don't look five years old in this,” he mumbled irritably.

“You look ridiculous,” Raya giggled, browsing the big mirror-screen for more clothing. “It's a wonder we didn't get caught.”

She picked out a red dress and tapped a button. The holoprojector quickly lit up and rendered the image onto her body.

“How did you do the voice thing by the way?” she asked, engrossed by her own reflection.

“What thing?” Soren wandered through the fitting room.

“You sounded just like the poacher when you were talking before.”

He winced. 

“M-my voice broke last year,” he explained timidly.

“And?” Raya asked without turning.

He started fidgeting with his hands. 

“And then it tried to heal itself but that's not how larynxes work.” 

“So, what? You're a tenor?” 

“Baritone,” he admitted.

Raya turned around to scrutinize him personally. 

“So why do you sound like a kid?” she asked.

“I have a wide range...”

“But why sound like a boy?”

He kept walking, observing each perfectly proportioned mannequin with feigned interest. 

“People don’t listen to me,” he said. “They look for the man that's talking to them.” His head fell. “Even Rhonko doesn't recognise my voice.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Say something,” Raya grinned deviously.

“So you can make fun of me?” he pre-empted. “Chah’ir’vanai.”

“How am I going to make fun of you?”

“I don't know.” He shrugged. “I'd rather not find out.”

Raya suddenly strutted off the podium, the bright red dress following her every move. She came so close Soren took a step back, afraid she was going to touch him. A hand rested on her hip as she rocked it out to the side.

“Tell me what you think,” she said sensuously, shaking out her hair.

He swallowed hard and opened his mouth but it wasn't the boy she heard when he said, "You look beautiful."

“Who wanted a suit?” A busy Chiss appeared in the changing room. 

The two of them turned to find a well-groomed man in a satin gilet and violet scarf approaching.

“Him,” Raya nodded and went back to the holo-podium.

“You?” the tailor asked quizzically.

He scrupuled Soren from head to toe and then looked at the mannequin that towered over him. The boy couldn’t hold his gaze and stared dejectedly at his feet while his cheeks grew warmer.

“You would like it in black?” he asked.

“Ebony,” Raya called out.

“Mmm, you’re right. That would look better,” the tailor agreed.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver rod. A single click spilled a blue light from the end to scan Soren’s dimensions. Another click and it faded, folded and he stowed it back in his pocket. 

“Ma’resh. This shouldn't take long. Would you like some refreshments while you wait?”

“Ehm, no. We're fine, thank you.”

“I want tse’chu water,” Raya called out.

“Ma’resh'esu nara'seh. I'll ask the hostess to bring it out.” The tailor bowed and disappeared through the door.

Soren took a deep breath and sat down on the lounge with his back to the holo-podium. 

“I don't like this place,” he said, picking at his fingers. “Everyone is so polite.”

“Like that's a bad thing.” Raya smirked.

“I guess I'm just used to having my head caved in when I say 'Cha’ibeiyu',” he joked.

“Hey, I said I was sorry,” she said. “I can't take it back.”

“It’s not just you,” he said wearily, “it’s everyone at the Base.”

“Then why are you getting so worked up about it?”

“I don't know...” He dumped his head into his hands. He wasn't even sure why he was still talking. 

“You could always _leave_ the Program,” Raya suggested. 

“It would be nice,” he admitted. “If only for a few days…”

“You don't want to go back either," she realised. "Do you?”

“Of course, I don't _want to,”_ he said testily. “I… I have to.”

“Tchh.” Raya flicked at the screen in front of her. “You don't _have_ to do anything. You could leave if you wanted.”

“No. They’d chase us down. Bring us back,” he said sadly. “Or try to kill us.”

“Us?”

Soren bristled. “I’m sorry. I-I just assumed-”

“Do you want to run away with me?” she asked suddenly.

The quiet whir of the holoprojector filled his ears as he contemplated. 

Would it be so bad to just leave? 

He didn't answer right away, overthinking it for a few minutes as he always did. 

“Some part of me does,” he said. “There’s no logic behind it but… I do.”

“Logic?” Raya laughed. “You don't need logic to run away from the people who torture you every day.”

“It's not that simple,” he said. “Where would I go? What would I eat? Where would I sleep?”

“You're resourceful. You'll figure it out.” Raya twirled on the podium.

“I'm nobody,” he said. “I've died thirteen times. I've barely grown a vilia in five years. I don’t even look like a man.” His eyes fell upon his hands. “Who would accept me like this?”

“Who gives a bre’es?” Raya said irritably. “It's not other people that have to accept you.” She considered her reflection. “Just you.”

Soren turned to look at her sheepishly. And then she spun around, letting the simulated physics swish her wide skirts in a whirlwind of silk. They came sliding down her legs as she posed once again. Flawless.

“Everyone else can go fuck themselves.” She gave him a dazzling smile and Soren couldn't help a chuckle from the other side of the lounge. 

It didn't sound like him at all. And then, Raya realized, that it did.

“I like this one,” she said. “What do you think?”

“Why are you asking me?” He shrugged.

“I need an objective opinion.”

“Then I'm afraid I have none to give you,” he said with the hint of a smile. 

“Yeah, you're right. You're no help at all.” She returned to gaze at her reflection.

Just then, the hostess arrived with a tray of tse’chu water for both of them.

“Ah, I didn't ask for any,” Soren mumbled. 

“It’s complimentary, sir,” she said with a bow as she presented him with the drink.

“Ah- Th-thank you very much.” He returned the bow.

“I am glad to be of service.”

“Speaking of,” Raya turned around. “Can I get your opinion on this dress? My brother isn't helping.”

“Ma’resh’esu, nara’seh.” The hostess bowed. “It sits very well but the overall colour gamut does not fully compliment your skin tone.”

“Mmmm…”

“If you would allow me to make a recommendation?”

“Mmm.” Raya nodded, narrowing her eyes.

The woman stepped up to the holo-podium control panel and quickly flipped through the catalogue to find the dress she was looking for. She selected and stamped it onto the holoprojector which draped Raya’s body in a dark blue silk sheath. There were no silly straps, no cuts or patterns or gems. Only two long white gloves running down her arms. Simple, elegant and sophisticated.

“I like it,” she said, twirling on the spot with diamonds in her ears. “Charge it to our room, would you?”

“At once, nara’seh.” The hostess bowed again. She tapped at the control panel and demonstrated to Raya. “Please type in your room number here.”

And she did.

“Thank-you very much for your patronage. Your order will be delivered to your room as soon as it is finished.” 

“Great,” Raya said. She stepped off the podium and the hologram broke, revealing her pale blue skin as she sipped the tse’chu water in her underwear. 

Soren turned away abruptly but she could see his ears turning violet and grinned.

“Come on, k’rahtu. Let's go check out the room.”

“Don't you think you should put some clothes on first?”

“Nnngh. Fine,” she agreed. “You're such a baby.”

There was some rustling of fabric as Raya once again dressed herself as a poacher. 

“Let's go,” she said, walking past him with a brisk step.

They left the dressing room and then the boutique, followed by the melodious thanks of the staff who bowed to them as they walked out the door and straight into the hotel lobby where they were staying. It was a grand space painted burgundy and brown. The floor shimmered beneath them and left golden footprints as they walked, fading gently into the ether. From the tall ceiling hung a beautiful pfillo-glass chandelier, handspun into geometric shapes like snowflakes in a turned down castle of ice. Warm yellow light escaped its branches and spilled over the foyer in rippling waves.

“It's so beautiful.” Raya smiled at it.

“Mmm,” Soren agreed quietly beside her.

“I wonder if it would fit in my room…” she whispered deviously.

“It and nothing else.”

_“Buzzkill.”_

They made the trip up to the fifth floor in silence and entered room 513 with a keycard registered to one Xom’ura’matu. The concierge had been only too happy to make a spare for his children who’d come to visit that weekend. The two would-be agents didn't see the need to tell her that Murama was currently on ice in a cse'tsu den and graciously accepted the key to the deluxe suite on the top floor.

Raya started stripping as soon as she was inside. The thick hunter's jacket was flung haphazardly to the floor. The white/grey camo overalls followed. Shirts and shoes continued the path of discarded clothing all the way to the refresher.

“Rus’sotu!” she called dibs, disappearing into the pearly white bathroom. The burgundy door slid closed and Soren could hear the sound of water filling up a tub. 

_“Figures,”_ he mumbled to himself.

He took off his jacket and overalls and boots and sat down on the bed with a sigh. It was warm and comfortable enough to wear just a single layer of clothing so he rolled up the big sleeves on Murama’s shirt and settled in. 

He found a remote on the bedside table and flicked on the extranet. A holoterminal projected down from the ceiling and the image of a well-groomed Chiss began reading the news which Soren only half paid attention to. He pulled out his datapad and pretended to read, gradually turning up the volume and the brightness on the holoterminal to full blast. A few errant taps on the silver tablet and Soren began scanning for hidden cameras.

It was unlikely though not impossible. The hotel they'd chosen was only a grand double door away from the so-called Town Hall and Soren had grown more than a little suspicious about the management. He broke the hotel’s network security without much trouble but he had to plug into the extranet terminal directly and boost the wireless signal high enough to find the closed circuit holocams. One hundred and sixty-three in total. One for every room, including theirs. The asymmetric gigabit encryption annoyed him for a few minutes but Soren was taught to crack worse. 

The entire string of hidden holocams revealed themselves in a long and winding list on his datapad and the would-be agent needed only a few more minutes to trigger a loop on the last twenty six hours of footage. Satisfied that they couldn’t be seen, Soren turned off the holoterminal and started searching the room for bugs.

He went through all the drawers, cabinets, storage units. Felt under the mattress and checked the oblong shaped bed for recorders, cameras and the like. Even the mini-cooler did not escape his attention but he found little inside except overpriced beverages and confectionery. Something he'd expect to find on Coruscant but certainly not in the Ascendancy.

He stood in the centre of the luxurious two bedroom suite, searching for the surveillance he knew was there but couldn't find. He decided to search behind the elegant paintings affixed to the burgundy walls but his nimble fingers found nothing planted in their frames.

“Tchh,” he tisked. He hated being wrong. But then his rolling eyes caught sight of the holoprojector above.

The hotel had forgone traditional Chiss light panels and instead chosen foreign lamps to decorate the ceiling. Soren quickly spotted the tiny black bead embedded between the burgundy pearls that circled the holoprojector but he couldn't reach it on his own. So he dragged a chair all the way over and stood on the tips of his toes to pluck the camera like a berry from a branch.

“Mmmm,” he uttered pensively, examining the holocam. 

The device was remote. Limited light sensor which didn’t cover the full spectrum of Chiss sight. And a symbol on the bottom. An Aurabesh Herf and Senth superimposed over two interconnected spheres. Holo-Sec. A Republic tech company that specialized in security systems. Not technically illegal in the Ascendancy but enough to raise eyebrows upon closer inspection.

Soren decided to use his free time wisely and slipped the tiny camera into his pocket. He picked up the keycard Raya had thrown on the floor with the rest of her clothes and slipped out of the suite in a pair of complimentary slippers. No one troubled the boy as he walked down the empty corridor. And as he passed a room with an open door, he spotted a cart with cleaning supplies.

“Excuse me.” He knocked.

A tired woman emerged from the bathroom, searching for the source of the sound. Soren poked his head up over the cart and she smiled at him. 

“Yes, dear?”

“H-hello,” he said innocently. “Could I please have a few bottles of hair wash? My sister used up the ones in our room.”

“Of course, vir’chah.” She walked over to the cart. “How many do you need?”

“Three, please. Mother and father will need some too.”

“Ma’resh.” She leaned down to fetch the tiny bottles neatly stored in the bottom of the cart and failed to notice the keycard disappearing from her apron pocket as she rummaged.

“There you are,” she said, finally emerging. “Three bottles.”

“Thank you very much,” Soren said, taking them timidly. “H-have a nice day.”

“And you, vir’chah.”

He slipped the bottles into his pocket and walked down the corridor, around the corner and out of sight. His fiery eyes observed the security cameras as he walked casually down the hall, all in place and working but what the security guard would be seeing had nothing to do with the boy that passed them by.

Down the hall he could hear the maid still busy cleaning the same room but from the other side came voices. Deep, male, hushed tones.

“Make sure they have enough to ship tonight. The freighter drops at 0200.”

“There’ll be more than enough. Don’t worry.”

“Then don’t give me reason to.”

Soren dropped to the floor and crawled under a table that was tastefully decorated with a vase and holo-brochures. He made sure to close his eyes so they wouldn’t spot him.

“Murama will be back by tomorrow. His kids are already here.”

“I didn’t know he had kids.”

“So do I.”

“Really?”

“Ma’r, three boys.”

Two men walked by, dressed smartly in black, with highlights of burgundy on their suits. They failed to spot anything amiss as they passed the table and headed down the corridor towards the turbolift.

Soren watched them go, eyes glowing in the shadows where he hid. 

Once they were gone, he crept out from under the table and continued down the hall, searching for the room they came from. The distinct odour of their cologne was unmistakable and he followed it all the way to their room a few doors down. He cleared his throat and knocked on the door.

“Housekeeping,” he said far more maturely but there was no reply.

He waited a moment before knocking again and when no one answered, he slid the maid’s keycard into the slot and opened the door. 

The young agent slipped inside quietly and surveyed the suite. It was almost identical to their own but the view outside the balcony was a little different and the beds had obviously been used. He entered one of the bedrooms, opening the door with his sleeve covering his finger. It was a similar layout again but beside the nightstand was a large suitcase with a discrete but visibly sophisticated lock. 

Finding nothing else of interest in the room, he pulled out his datapad and sat down to crack it. The digital lock gave him the runaround with over twelve billion possible entries and he couldn’t bypass the security which was keyed to the owner’s biological signature. A Chiss design.

Soren got up and looked around the suite again. The second room contained a plain bag full of clothing and a large case that was filled with starship maintenance equipment. He rifled through the toolbox and pulled out a can of Hudroxu developer, commonly used to find cracks in metal and ceramics and perfect for what he had in mind.

A quick search of the refresher and he found a standard med-kit in the storage unit under the sink. He took the medi-tape and disinfectant and went about spraying the most commonly used surfaces, searching for clean fingerprints. His fiery red eyes picked up the clouds of fluorescent aerosol in the darkness and he wiped each surface down when he was done. Six clean fingerprints, two partials and a collection of skin flakes and hair from the man’s bed.

He returned to find his datapad had forced just over two billion entries when it found the right one and when he presented the fingerprints to the scanner, the suitcase opened.

It was full of money.

Stacks of chousen in thousand unit clumps. 

Cash. Unwieldy. Uncommon. Soren had never seen so much.

He pushed it aside, looking for what lay beneath and found datacards and datapads, inventories of stock in parchment and ink. Letters. Mentioning the Mayor of Csiulast’ores in code. Nothing concrete about his connection but the shipping manifests confirmed trade with companies outside the Ascendancy. Soren devoured the information with his eyes and took copies and records of everything he found. And when he was done, he placed it all back, exactly as he found it. His memory was flawless and he removed all traces of his existence from the suite. As a parting gift, he took the holocam hidden in the projector on the ceiling and swept the room one final time before opening the door a crack and disappearing outside. 

No one in the hall but the maid’s cart. And she was just finishing up.

Soren flattened against the door opposite and listened for any sign of occupants. His ears picked up none and he used the keycard to let himself in just as the maid left the room she was cleaning. He heard the door close behind her. He heard her hovering the trolley over to the next room. Her fumbling for the missing keycard he held in his hand. Her soft cursing and finally resignation at having left it inside the last room she’d cleaned.

The maid began hovering the trolley in the opposite direction toward the turbolift and Soren breathed out. He plucked the hidden holocam from the room’s holoterminal while he waited for her to go and when the chime of the turbolift sounded in the distance he took his ear off the door and peeked outside.

No one coming in or out.

Soren stepped out timidly and quietly closed the door behind him. He tucked the keycard away and took several steps toward Murama’s room when-

“Cheh,” he heard a deep voice beckon and a door close.

Soren froze.

“You, boy. What are you doing here?”

He did his best not to wince as he turned around and looked at the tall Chiss man that was staring down at him. His face was full of scorn and lines and his thick brows gave him a far angrier expression than any Chiss could ever be capable of.

“I-I’m trying to find my room,” Soren mumbled.

The man gave him a stern assessing look and then his furrowed brow relaxed.

“You’re Murama’s kid,” he said simply.

“Mmm.” Soren nodded. “I went looking for the maid and got lost.”

“It’s down the hall, vir’chah. Room 513.”

“Ah. Chah’ir’vahs.” Soren bowed. 

The man nodded and moved in beside him. “Come, I’ll walk you there.”

Soren felt a hand on his back, guiding him gently toward the door of the suite he and Raya had commandeered. The man beside him seemed in no way hostile but Soren could see the badge pinned to his chest. The same one the poachers were all wearing. Mercenaries.

“What’s your name, vir’chah?” he asked politely.

“Xom’oren’matu.”

“After your grandfather, ah?” the man said. “How old are you?”

Soren opened his mouth but paused before answering. “Five.”

“Mmm, you’ve got a bit of growing to do.” The man looked down at him sympathetically. “Your mother not feeding you well? I know Mila is busy but she really should take better care of you.”

“I’m fine,” Soren lied. 

“You can order food into your room, you know? I’m sure your father won’t mind.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m not really hungry,” Soren said but was undercut by the low growling that came from his stomach at the mention of food.

“You can’t lie to your body, vir’chah,” the man said kindly.

They came to the door and Soren pulled out his keycard to unlock it.

“Thank you for your help,” he said. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I know your name.”

“H’sottor Ruev’ron’otesh,” he replied.

Soren bowed politely.

“I’ll let your father know you’re here when he gets back,” he said and turned to leave. “Viscim’sah.”

“Viscim’sah, H’sottor,” Soren said and closed the door. He leaned his head into it and breathed in deeply, listening to the distant footfalls of the lieutenant leaving.

“Who was that?” Raya asked, emerging from the refresher dressed in bath towel couture.

Soren felt his cheeks warming up again at the sight and looked away, fidgeting with his hands. 

“One of the mercenary lieutenants.”

“What did he want?” she asked, unravelling the towel on her head.

“Nothing,” Soren muttered. “He was just walking me back to the room.”

“Where did you go?” Raya peeled off the towel around her waist.

Soren shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. He could see Raya’s silhouette on the floor but he dared not look up.

“I got us more hair wash,” he remembered, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Mmm, good idea. I used it all up,” Raya said unapologetically. “Did you find anything?”

“I did. But we need more.” Soren pulled out his datapad. “Look at this,” he said, offering it to her with an outstretched hand.

She reached out lazily and grabbed it off him, lying down on the sofa to read.

Soren waited. 

One minute, two minutes, three. He’d picked his nailbeds raw by the end and watched them grow back slowly, wiping the blood on his trousers.

“You’re right,” she said finally. “We need more.”

Soren lifted up his head instinctively and immediately regretted it.

Raya was lounging on her side, pale skin slick and blue and shining and naked, her eyebrows mocking him endlessly.

“What? Have you never seen a naked woman before?”

“I-I shouldn’t be looking at you like this.” He turned around and sat down on the back of an armchair. “It’s disrespectful.”

“Oh, please,” Raya scoffed, kicking her legs over one another. “The only thing that’s disrespectful is thinking my body needs to be covered up to look presentable.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just… I’m getting distracted.” 

“Well, get _un-distracted._ We have work to do.”

“You’re right,” he said, half-turning. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and revealed three shiny black beads rolling around on his palm. “The rooms in this hotel are bugged.”

“What?!” Raya suddenly remembered her dignity and grabbed a towel to cover herself.

“I managed to slice them but it’s only a matter of time before they realize they’re watching yesterday’s footage. We need to leave before then.”

“Why didn't you tell me earlier?”

“You ran into the refresher before I could confirm.”

“You should have said something as soon as you got back.”

“I just got back.”

“Where did you go again?”

Soren sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Ma’resh, I’ll start from the beginning.”

Then a chime sounded at the door.

“...ktah,” he swore. “Hide,” he whispered to Raya. She rolled off the sofa, tactically masking her presence and taking cover with a charric pistol in her hand.

Soren got up and walked to the door. He took another deep breath and opened it, expecting to find more mercenaries but it was the sales assistant from the boutique.

“N’ssima’sah, nara’su,” she bowed politely, offering him the package in her hands.

“Mmm? Ah, chah’ir’vahs,” Soren accepted the two large boxes which were thankfully must lighter than they appeared. “That was quick.”

“If you have any issues regarding your purchase, please do not hesitate to contact the boutique at any time.” She bowed again. “We are glad to be of service.”

“We will, thank you again.”

“A good evening to you and your family.” She bowed a third time and left.

Soren watched her go and slowly backed into the room, letting the door softly close on its own. He walked over to the long sofa and put the boxes down.

“You’re clear,” he told Raya and her scarlet eyes peered over the armrest suspiciously. “It was the lady from the boutique.”

The word ‘boutique’ instantly brought Raya out of hiding. She jumped up and Soren moved well out of the way as she tore open the elegant silver packaging and rifled through the burgundy box engraved with gold leaf.

“Chai’beiyu, usaria.” She grinned as she pulled out the long blue dress and held it against her body.

Soren turned his attention to his own box but quickly realized he was in no state to try the suit on. His fingers passed through his hair, matted and messy and filthy as he was.

“Is it alright if I-” he tried to say but Raya had already rushed into her room to try on the dress. 

He sighed and wandered into the refresher to shower. And it was a long one. Cold and bracing and halfway through, he realised that some of his toes had grown back incorrectly and stuck out at awkward angles. 

He climbed out of the rinser and rifled through his clothes, trying to find the drugs he’d stolen from the pharmacy. Half a bottle of pain dampeners and hematoma blocker later, he shoved a towel in his mouth and began breaking each of his toes, one by one. It was a procedure Overseer Lhech had taught him; how to reset the bones in his body correctly since he managed to break them on a daily basis. The Overseer never let him have so many pain dampeners though and the numbing helped dull the screams.

It took only a few minutes for each bone to heal and by the time he was done, Soren needed another shower. Sweat dripped off him as he stepped back into the rinser and washed it away, wrapping himself up in a big warm towel afterward. He took a moment to hug the plush blanket and breathe before approaching the door. His hand drifted up to tap the opening key but stopped mid-air, hovering, uncertain. He closed his eyes and listened. 

Raya was on the other side, he could tell. But what was she doing? Was she waiting to yank the towel off him when he came out? Dump a bottle of sticky drink on his head? He could think of worse things than having to shower again but he would much rather avoid the entire affair. A minute went by and he soon realised that he couldn't stand there forever. He had to face the music or in this case, the pretty girl with a fist of durasteel.

His nose betrayed him and he sneezed quietly but it was enough.

“Oren?” he heard her say on the other side. “Are you alright?”

He deliberated before answering. Was it a baited question? Did she mean two right hands? He was ambidextrous so it wouldn't really make any difference but was there a joke in there? Or was he thinking too hard?

“Eeh, I'm fine,” he said unsurely. “Is something wrong?”

“You've been in there a while,” she said. “You sure you're alright?”

“Yes, nothing to worry about,” he said, looking down at his toes.

“Mmm…”

He heard her stalking away in heels, the swish of her dress following and when he was sure she was gone, he keyed open the door and tiptoed out. He snuck his box into the free bedroom and opened it. Everything was laid out perfectly, neatly pressed and compartmentalised. Underwear first, then singlet, shirt, trousers, jacket, shoes, gloves. Soren dressed himself and turned to the wardrobe mirror.

There he was. A little drab but looking better. The suit fit well and filled him out somewhat, though there was nothing that could be done for his face. His cheekbones jutted out at sharp angles and his hair was a messy mop of midnight blue.

“Pfoo.” He tried to blow it out of his eyes but it returned with the same vigor.

“Nnnn…” he glared at it.

There was a set of basic amenities on the vanity and he pulled out the hair gel to work. It took a lot more than expected to get his hair to assume any shape at all and it wasn't one of his better skills. But at least it wasn't all over his face.

Soren sighed and left the bedroom, too depressed by the mirror to stay there any longer.

“Soooo,” Raya crooned, strutting about the lounge room. “How do I look?”

The dress looked better in person than it did on the holo. The tailor was definitely a talented man and Raya was enjoying her little fashion show immensely.

“Great,” he said. “What about me?”

“You looked like a slimy six year old in an expensive suit.”

“Why did I even ask?” Soren muttered. “Alright, let's go over the plan.”

“The plan?”

“Yeah, we're gonna get this son of a pes’sa.”


End file.
